Falling Slowly
by Leahhh99
Summary: Sergeant Harriet Barclay joins SunHill looking for a new challenge. Will it be that simple or will something - or someone - send her plans spiralling in a completely different direction?
1. Chapter 1

She smoothed down her uniform and glanced in the mirror. Seemingly satisfied with her appearance she turned and left the changing rooms. Spotting a group of uniformed officers leaning against the wall at the far end of the corridor, she headed in their direction. Turning the corner, she could see a stream of officers entering a room on the left hand side of the corridor. Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder and she whirled around, staring at the dark haired woman stood behind her.

"Harriet Barclay?" The taller woman nodded. "Inspector Gina Gold" Gina held out her hand for the brunette to shake. "I'm sorry I didn't get to come and meet you beforehand, I had a meeting with the super and the DCI"

"Don't worry about it, Ma'am, I understand" The Inspector stood back and slowly glanced over the woman's appearance. She was tall, around five foot ten, with large brown eyes and a mass of thick brown hair, which had been scraped up into a tight ponytail. Her uniform was pristine and her make up simple.

"Well I can't keep my officers waiting, can I?" Gina gestured towards the door. "Let's go and introduce the relief to their new Sergeant"

Entering the room to the left of them, she moved to the back of the room behind the officers as Gina called for quiet. As the Inspector started off the morning briefing by discussing the work of the previous day, the Sergeant took the opportunity to observe her colleagues; There seemed to be an even amount of male and female PC's sat in the chairs in front of her but, deciding she couldn't really tell much from the back of their heads, she turned her attention to the three officers stood along the side of the room. Presuming they were the three other Sergeant's, she tried to work out which officer was which from the three names she'd been given. Nikki Wright was obviously the blonde woman on the right but she was puzzled as to which of the male officers was Callum Stone or Dale Smith. As if he could feel her gaze on him, the taller of the two turned and looked at her.

Quickly she returned her gaze to the Inspector, avoiding the man. "Oh and finally, I'd like to introduce our newest recruit; Sergeant Harriet Barclay" The Inspector raised her arm towards the back of the room as the other officers turned and looked at her. "She comes highly recommended so I expect you to treat her with the respect she deserves… Nate and Will" As a jeer rose from the officers the brunette smirked. "Sergeant Stone, I'd like you to partner Sergeant Barclay today, if that's alright?"

"Ma'am" The man replied with a nod.

"Aright, then, off you go" The Inspector instructed the relief, turning away and busying herself with her clipboard.

Quickly filing past the PC's, she followed Callum out into the corridor and into the Sergeant's office. "That's your desk" Callum nodded towards the desk behind the window. "Here, these are yours too" The man placed a radio, utility belt and stab vest on the desk.

Sliding into the seat, she sat down and turned on her radio. "So who's on custody today?" She asked as she adjusted the belt.

"Nikki" Callum replied firmly as he tapped at his keyboard and peered at the screen. "Smithy's going through WAD's with an assault victim"

The pair sat in silence for a while before both their radios burst into life. "All units from Sierra Oscar; suspected armed robbery at Boost nightclub on Fairbank road. CO19 already on their way, any unit deal?"

Callum glanced up from his computer and snatched his radio up. "We can take that" Nodding the brunette quickly pulled on her stab vest and belt before attaching her radio. "Sierra Oscar from 30, show me and 82 dealing, over"

The two officers quickly left the office before heading out of the station and into the area car. Callum quickly pulled the car out onto the road, putting his foot down as more information came over their radios about where they were heading. As Callum threw the car round the corner and onto Fairbank road, she grabbed at the door handle and glared at the man as she hit her head on the window beside her.

"This is it" He nodded at the building in front of them before leaping from the vehicle.

"I can see that" Harriet muttered. Callum shot the woman a glare before striding towards where one of the armed officers was stood.

"So what we got?" He asked, removing his hat as the brunette joined him.

"Well from what we can see, the whole place has been ransacked. The tables have been overturned, glasses and bottles smashed, the padding in the seats has been ripped out and the tills have been bashed about. We found one of the guns stashed behind the bar. Im sure you'll be able to get prints from it"

"I presume whoever did it is long gone?" Harriet asked, eyeing the front of the club warily.

The man nodded. "We got here about five minutes before you guys and there was no sign of anyone inside"

"Any victims or witnesses?" Callum asked as Harriet moved aside to observe something on the ground a little to the left of them. Narrowing his eyes he craned his neck to try and see what she was looking at.

"The manager took a battering but no one's been shot" The man nodded his head towards the ambulance where a man was been tended to by paramedics. "There's a couple of cleaners and the assistant manager who were there when it happened. Their over there" The CO19 officer pointed towards the bench outside the club where more paramedics were knelt next to them.

"Thanks" Callum smiled tightly at the man before moving towards the club. Before he could, however, Harriet reached out and grabbed his arm. Turning, he peered at the ground that the woman was stood beside.

"Track marks" Harriet elaborated flatly. "You can clearly see how the fresh they are. Surely the CSE will be able to get something from that won-?"

"Yeah, he probably can but is that all you wanted to tell me?" Callum responded coldly. "That you've found some track marks. How else did you think whoever did this got away so fast? Fly?"

"No, Callum, look" Harriet glared at the man. "There isn't two sets of tyre marks, there's only one; meaning the getaway vehicle was probably a motorbike" He peered at the ground before conceding the brunette was probably right. "No wonder you're still in uniform if you're that unobservant"

"What's your excuse?" He snapped back icily.

"I like being in uniform. It means I don't have to join the gym" She rolled her eyes at the blank look she received in response. "I'll radio for the CSE to get down here and then we'll go and talk to the witnesses"

Raising her radio to her mouth, she smirked as Callum headed away towards the entrance to the club. "Sierra Oscar from 82, can we get the CSE down here, we've found some tyre tracks that we think could help us find the getaway vehicle and there's a gun with possible prints"

"Received, 82" Harriet returned her radio to its previous position before joining Callum and heading towards the bench outside the club.

"Sergeant Stone, Sergeant Barclay from SunHill. Can we have a word?" The three women sat on the bench shuffled awkwardly before the two women directly in front of them nodded reluctantly. "Where were you when the robbery took place?"

"Me and Leonie were cleaning the men's toilets" Replied the smallest of the three, gesturing to the redhead beside her. Harriet quickly scribbled down what the woman had said in her notebook.

"What did you hear?" Asked the brunette firmly.

"Screaming and then the sound of glass smashing" Leonie replied softly. "Me and Marie thought that Nicole had just knocked some of the glasses over and she'd hurt herself or something"

"Who's Nicole?" Callum asked in confusion. Marie pointed her head towards the blonde sat at the other end of the bench, pointedly avoiding the officers.

Returning his gaze to the two women in front of him, the Sergeant sighed. "Did they come into the toilets at all? Did they know you were there?" The women shook their heads. "Alright, well we'll need to take a name and address from you both. Sergeant Barclay will sort that out"

Callum moved away as the CSE appeared behind the two sergeants. "Marie Greening. 26 Mosley road" The taller of the two women replied.

"Leonie Bailey. 46A Tannerwell house" Harriet quickly scribbled down what she'd been told before smiling and thanking the two women for their co-operation as Callum joined her again. The pair glanced at each other before they approached the blonde who'd so far sat in silence.

"Nicole? Can we ask you a couple of que-"Callum began before the woman stood up abruptly.

"Do I have to talk to you?" She asked icily.

"No but it would help our investigation" Callum reasoned, frowning at her behaviour.

"It's hardly rocket science, is it?" Nicole shrugged. "What happened today isn't exactly suspicious. We're a popular nightclub that makes pretty good profits and someone clearly wanted a chunk of that. Now all you have to do is find whoever did it and charge them. End of"

Before either of the officers could respond, the blonde stormed away quickly. The two Sergeant's stared at each other for a moment before the brunette quickly moved back towards the two other woman who were sat on the bench.

"Do you have a surname or address for Nicole?" She asked as the women glanced up.

"Her surnames Garbett. Nicole Garbett. But I don't know where she lives" Marie responded.

"Alright, thanks" Harriet tapped her pen against her notepad. "I think our best bet is to get back down the station and check this Nicole Garbett out on CRIMINT and then get down to St Hugh's when the managers ready to talk"

Nodding, Callum and Harriet headed back to the area car, passing Beth and Nate on their way and telling them to pick up the CCTV from in and around the club.


	2. Chapter 2

**Ooh!**

 **Firstly, I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who reviewed/followed/favourited: Serenbex, HMbookqueen, MelBell, Filicity, Guest, natsb2106 and Tasha - I'm really grateful! I didn't expect such a good response and I'm stunned you guys like it. So, again, a big thank you!**

 **Secondly, I thought I should clarify a few things. First off, this fic is set during series 24 and starts around May time. Secondly, Emma Keane isn't killed in the bomb blasts and she's still alive and well in this fic. Thirdly, I know there's generally only three uniform Sergeant's and I have four, but that won't be for long and we'll soon be back down to three.**

 **Oh and to the 'Guest' who asked about Stevie and Smithy...You'll have to wait and see but I love them, too, so I'm sure they'll pop up soon :)**

The two officers returned to the station in an awkward silence. The only conversation that occurred was to conclude that Nicole was suspicious and she had something to hide and that was the reason she was so reluctant to talk. The pair headed back inside and Harriet immediately logged onto CRIMINT, typing the woman's name into the database.

"Our assistant manager Nicole Garbett has an interesting background but not one that links her to armed robbery in any way," Harriet said as she tapped her finger against the monitor. "Shoplifting as a minor and then a few small drug offences that landed her six months inside at twenty one, but then nothing for eight years."

"Known associates?" Callum asked as he leant against the filing cabinet.

"Jade Lockley who she got nicked for shoplifting with a couple of times and Ben Page who she was seen with on a few occasions around the time she was into the drugs scene." Harriet shrugged. "I've looked up Jade Lockley and she moved out of Canley eleven years ago and the last record of her on here is fourteen years ago when she and Nicole got nicked for shoplifting for a second time."

"How about Ben Page?" Callum folded his arms. "Drugs and armed robbery go hand-in-hand more than armed robbery and shoplifting."

"Fair point." Tapping at the keyboard, she gasped at the long list of offences that appeared under the man's name. "Well he's certainly being a busy boy."

As Callum leaned over to look at the screen, there was a knock at the door and Grace and Stevie appeared. Smiling, the two detectives introduced themselves to the brunette before Stevie sat down in Smithy's desk chair and Grace leant against the desk.

After Harriet and Callum debriefed the two women on the case, Stevie thought for a moment. "Do you have an address for Nicole Garbett?" Harriet pushed her notebook towards the blonde who peered at it carefully. "Alright, me and Grace will go and see if she's ready to talk yet."

As the two detectives disappeared out of the office, the brunette's desk phone rang. Callum glanced up as he listened to the one sided conversation. "Hello? Oh hi. Yeah… mmm… sure. Alright, thanks." Oblivious to the other Sergeant beside her, she quickly gathered up her things and moved towards the doorway.

"Oi, where you going?" Callum asked, leaning round the desk with a frown on his face.

"Where'd you think? To speak to the manager; he's awake and ready to make a statement." Turning on her heel, the Sergeant stalked away down the corridor, leaving Callum to follow behind.

X-X

"How you feeling, Mr Greaves?" Harriet asked as she entered the cubicle. The man simply shifted weakly in his hospital bed.

"Like I've been hit with a hammer." He replied bluntly before sighing.

"Well don't rule it out just yet." Harriet flipped open her notepad as Callum appeared at the opposite side of the bed. "Can you talk us through what happened?"

"I remember comin' in at around half nine this morning, I'd left the club at midnight last night and then headed home" Andrew paused, adjusting the blanket. "I let the cleaners in, Marie and Leonie, and they got started on the toilets while I went into the office and counted out last night's takings. I left my assistant manager, Nicole, to cash up the money and put it in the safe when they closed last night. There was around five grand, I think, I can't quite remember. But anyway, Nicole turned up about half past ten and she got on with organising the place. The delivery came at quarter to eleven and then whoever it was that robbed the place came in about ten minutes later"

"Do you think it could have been the delivery men?" Callum asked, tucking his hands into his pockets.

"No, I saw them drive away out of the window in the office." Andrew shook his head softly. "Anyway, I was in the office and then there was screaming and then just the continuous sound of glasses smashing and this hard clunking noise. When I came out of the office, there was one of the guys holding Nicole by her hair, pressing the gun against the back of her neck. I tried to bargain with him but he didn't listen, just kept screaming for the cash. In the end I just let them go in and they let go of Nicole. I went over to see if she was okay but then the last thing I remember is being grabbed from behind and being kicked in the ribs."

"How many men were there?" Harriet asked, peering at the man.

"Two. One was holding Nicole and the other was smashing the glasses and the optics behind the bar." Andrew took a sip from the water beside his bed.

"Can you give us a description of the men, Sir?"

"Tall, one blonde and one possibly brown hair, I'm not sure. One had a red hoodie on and the other had a black jacket on" Andrew shook his head. "How's Nicole?"

"She's fine, sir, but not very co-operative." Callum replied smoothly.

"How'd you mean?" Andrew asked, glancing between the officers in confusion.

"We spoke to her earlier but she wouldn't give us a statement. Although we did take one from each of the cleaners who were there"

Andrew's face fell at the man's words before he sighed. "But… Nicole is such a great employee. She's my newly appointed assistant manager, I just promoted her. She's the only one I trust with the takings, bar myself."

"I'm sure she's just shaken up, sir," Harriet replied calmly as Callum stared at her. "She'll probably make a statement when she feels better but in the meantime, thank you for your time." Harriet smiled at the man as she stood to leave. "Oh and please bear in mind we may be in contact with more questions soon." The man simply nodded slowly before the two officer's disappeared behind the curtain.

Once they were heading down the corridor towards the exit, Callum grabbed her arm. "Oi, what did you say that for? Nicole definitely won't make a statement."

Yanking her arm out of the man's grip she turned and glared at him. "No but we don't want to alert Mr Greaves that we think there's something suspicious going on with Nicole and then he goes and does something stupid like tip her off, do we?"

Reluctantly Callum sighed before muttering about going to see how the door-to-door was going and for Harriet to go and check with Beth and Nate back at the station to see if they'd found anything on the CCTV.

As they headed towards the exit to the hospital, he let out a growl of annoyance. In the few hours he'd known the brunette he'd already come to the conclusion that almost everything she did seemed to piss him off. Checking his watch, he almost let out a groan as he realised how long he had left on shift.

X-X

Entering the computer room after Callum had dropped her at the station, she smirked at the sight of Beth and Nate punching each other lightly on the shoulder. Leaning against the desk as the two PC's glanced up, she gestured towards the CCTV that was playing on the screen.

"Did you find anything useful?" Beth quickly ejected the current disk before inserting a different disk.

"There's nothing from the disks in the club apart from obviously the robbery itself," Nate handed the woman the disk from inside the club. "But this one shows something that's a bit odd." Nate pointed at the screen. "This woman here enters the club and then, look, she comes out and takes the delivery fifteen minutes later before she makes a phone call and then disappears out of the camera view and then comes back and goes back inside and then around seven minutes later, these two blokes turn up."

"Alright thanks, you two. Beth, can you print me these stills off and then Sergeant Stone wants you to get down to the club to help with the door-to-door."

Nodding, the two PC's followed their instructions while Harriet moved to check over the CCTV footage. Feeling a tap on her shoulder she turned and smiled at Beth as the PC handed her the print outs. Deciding to show them to Stevie and Grace, she jogged up the stairs and entered CID, glancing around to find the two female detectives.

"Stevie, Grace; Beth and Nate have been going through the CCTV from in and around the club and they found this," Harriet handed the stills to the two detectives. "Nicole Garbett, the assistant manager, takes the delivery before making a phone call and disappearing round the corner. She comes back into view and then not long after the armed robbers turn up."

"So she's definitely involved in some way..." Stevie leant forward and rested her chin on her hand.

"If we can get Nicole Garbett's phone records we'll be able to trace the call."

"I'm on it." Grace moved round the desk, picking up her phone.

"Did you pick Nicole Garbett up from her house?"

"She wasn't there." The blonde replied with a sigh. "We asked her neighbours if they'd seen her but they all said not since this morning when she left for work at the same time as she always does."

"I'm gonna get back down to the club and see if the CSE's got anything from the tyre tracks." Harriet smiled at the two detectives before ducking out of CID and down the stairs, collaring Sally and Tony to give her a lift down to the club.

"You got anything?" Harriet crouched down beside the man.

"The getaway vehicle is a Suzuki ST 250 E. It's a 2006 model. I've rang it in to the station and the only model in Canley is registered to a Lewis Farmer. There's no prints on the gun, though."

Harriet nodded and thanked the CSE before joining Callum. "Did the door-to-door bring anything up?"

"They all heard the same apparently; smashing, screaming and then a vehicle shooting off. One of them gave us a time frame, though. Between twelve and half past."

Suddenly the brunette's phone burst into life. Raising the device to her ear, she held a finger up to Callum. "Sarge? It's Grace. I got the phone records for Nicole Garbett and according to this the call she made was to a Ben Page."

"Alright, thanks, Grace." Harriet ended the call before returning her attention to Callum. "Eddie says the getaway vehicle is registered to a Lewis Farmer and according to Nicole Garbett's phone records, she called a Ben Page just before the robbery took place this morning, ring any bells?"

"The known associate?" Harriet nodded. "Alright, get on to CID to give us an address for them and we'll get down there."


	3. Chapter 3

**_Thank you, again, for your reviews, Serenbex, Guest, Guest (number 2) and HollyElise99! I love reading what you guys think and like, so keep 'em coming! ;)_ **

_**Oh and to the 'guest' who mentioned Stevie and Smithy, I have some good news; their gonna be popping up in the next chapter! :)**_

After radioing for Sally and Tony to pick up Lewis Farmer and being informed that Stevie and Grace had received a call from one of Nicole Garbett's neighbours claiming she'd arrived home not long ago and the two detectives were heading down there to pick her up, the two Sergeants headed to the address for Ben Page. Pulling up outside the small house, the brunette glanced through the window at the house in front of them.

"I'll go round the back, make sure he doesn't get away. Keep in touch." Callum headed towards the back of the house while Harriet rang the doorbell. With no answer, she hammered on the door until she heard a key in the lock.

Opening the door, the young man spotted the woman's uniform immediately and attempted to slam the door in her face. Lodging her foot in the gap, she managed to prevent getting hit by the door. Ben turned and sprinted backwards with the brunette throwing the door back fiercely and heading after him. As he flung himself through the French doors at the back of the house, he spotted Callum over the garden gate and paused. Instinctively Harriet lurched forward to grab the man's arms but as she reached for her cuffs the man flung his fist out and knocked her sideways. Callum, having spotted the pair, burst through the gate and eyed the brunette, who was attempting to steady herself, carefully.

"You alright?" He asked, showing the first shred of kindness he had all day.

"Just… get af-after him!" She ordered breathlessly. Callum nodded and sprinted over the wall, radioing for a backup unit.

Standing up straight, she headed back to the area car and decided to try and locate their suspect. Pulling down the sun visor, she growled as she spotted the tell-tale signs of a black eye and possible fractured cheekbone. Sighing she started the car and hurled it round the corner as Beth and Nate arrived. As she passed them she spotted Ben heading down a side alley and decided to follow him on foot. Abandoning the vehicle, she sprinted down the alley and followed the suspect down the street and onto the main road until he made a sharp turn and she had to double back. Using her asp to move overgrown trees out of her path, she stopped as she spotted train tracks ahead. Turning, she took a deep breath as she spotted the man watching her from his position on the tracks.

"Mr Page, don't be stupid. Please come off the tracks." Harriet bargained. "It's dangerous, a train could come at any time."

"Nah, if you wanna nick me, you come down here. Or are you too scared now that you're on own and there isn't anyone around to make sure your safe?" Ben smirked as the brunette hesitated. Feeling her temper boil and attempting to ignore the ache in her cheek from where she'd been hit, she suddenly strode to the edge of the platform and leapt down on to the stones between the tracks. Ben's face faltered as he saw her striding towards him, hands on hips and angry glare in place.

"Mr Page," The brunette snapped, jabbing a finger in his face. "You have caused enough trouble for today. Robbing a nightclub armed with guns, assaulting a police officer and now jumping onto a bloody train track!" There was a pause before Ben leapt forward and Harriet suddenly felt two hands clamp around her neck. Gasping for breath she glanced up at the man as her legs wobbled from the sudden decline in oxygen getting to her lungs.

"I warned him, that Greaves, I warned him." The man spat saliva angrily from his mouth. "I told him to stay away from her. He just couldn't help himself, could he? A fat middle aged bloke like him and a pretty looking bird at his beck-and-call."

"You… you mean… N-Nicole?" Harriet gasped. She was attempting to distract Ben so she could hit the panic button on her radio but she didn't want to alarm him. "H-he was… hitting… on N-Nicole?"

Ben eyes widened at the woman's words. "Yeah. The women in that place are all in short skirts, all done up to the nines and Nicole was his right hand woman. Greaves couldn't keep his hands off, could he? The plan was we raid the club, store the money at Nic's place and then come back for it. Lewis would get his share and me and Nicole would start fresh somewhere else." He froze suddenly as a thought dawned on him. "Wait… if you're here and after me, then… then you must be after Farmer so that means…" As the realisation dawned on the man that his girlfriend had scammed him into stealing her the getaway money and she had no intention of taking him with her, there was a high pitched screech and a train came into view from the other end of the track. Hearing the train behind him, Ben paused and then screwed his face up in anger and pressed down harder on the woman's neck. "I've got nothing to lose now; my girlfriends scammed me, I'm gonna prison and I won't even see the money again"

"Don't… d-do anything stupid… Page" Harriet glanced over her attackers shoulder at the fast approaching train. "Look… w-we can e-end this now… no o-one gets hurt and you won't have m-murder added to your… rap sheet"

As the train hurtled towards her, getting louder and louder until the noise was almost unbearable, Ben paused before suddenly he dropped the brunette and sprinted to the other side of the tracks as the Sergeant fell to the floor. Gasping for breath, she glanced up in horror as the train seemed to be hurtling towards the officer at an alarming speed. With an almighty heave of desperation, she rolled herself off the tracks and down the grass banking, hitting her head on a tree on her route down the hill.

Laying on the grass until she heard the train pass just seconds later, she attempted to calm her breathing. Using her elbows to push herself up, she crawled up the banking before she weakly pushed herself to her feet and glanced around; the place was empty. Listening and checking for any other trains she quickly sprinted across the tracks and climbed onto the platform. Turning the corner into the woodland, she crashed straight into Beth and Nate who informed her everyone was on the lookout for her. Nodding silently, she let the two PC's guide her towards the car and take her back to the station.

X-X

Upon her return to the station she came face-to-face with the Inspector, who ordered her to get down to the FME before informing her she was expected in her office once she'd been checked over. Taking a deep breath, she stepped round the older woman as Beth offered to show her the way to the FME's room. Thanking the smaller woman, she silently followed the PC down the corridor before she was left with a red-headed woman who introduced herself as the FME.

The FME confirmed what Harriet had presumed; Page had given her a fractured cheekbone and some nasty bruises on her neck. However, luckily, she was allowed to leave soon after and the brunette quickly made her way to the vending machine to grab a coffee before she had to face the Inspector.

As the machine whirred into life, she heard heavy footsteps behind her and, against her better judgement, she turned to see who it was; Callum. Jumping as she found herself in such close proximity to the man, she glanced up and winced at the angry glare he was aiming in her direction. Becoming aware of how close they were stood, Callum stepped back as the brunette picked up her drink from the ledge of the vending machine.

"What the hell are you playing at?" Callum spat, his eyes blazing. "You could've got yourself killed!"

"But I didn't seen as I'm stood here." Harriet replied flatly.

"I thought I told you to stay in touch." The man snapped, ignoring her previous comment. "Or is that too difficult for you?"

Narrowing her eyes at the man she took a step forward. "What did you expect me to do, Callum? Turn round and say 'hey, can you wait to try and strangle me to death because my colleague wants to know where I am'?"

Callum glared at her for a moment before shaking his head. "You're not gonna listen, are you? You think what you did was reasonable, don't you?"

"Are you saying you wouldn't have done the same?" Callum simply glanced at her before muttering that he was going to interview Page with Nate.

Finishing her coffee, Harriet took a deep breath before heading towards the Inspectors office. Knocking on the door, she almost groaned when the Inspector instructed her to enter almost immediately. Knowing she was in for a dressing down on her first day didn't make her feel good.

"Sergeant Barclay," Gina greeted her with a courteous nod. "I'm guessing you understand why I want to speak to you?"

"Yes, Ma'am." Harriet folded her arms behind her back. Inspector Gold's menacing glare was pretty intimidating, even for a gutsy cop like her.

"Your behaviour today was not only reckless but incredibly dangerous. In addition to that, Sergeant, you ignored your colleague's request to keep in touch, a request that was required in order to keep you safe."

"With all respect, Ma'am, I wasn't entirely in a position to update Sergeant Stone to my whereabouts." Harriet reasoned.

"That's my point. If you'd simply assisted Sergeant Stone in the pursuit of Ben Page then I wouldn't have had to send officers to find you." Gina perched on the desk. "But you didn't and instead you decided to play supercop and almost get yourself strangled to death and killed by a bloody train." Harriet bowed her head. She knew her behaviour had been reckless but she'd got the result and, in the end, no harm had been done to anyone. "Do you understand, Sergeant Barclay?"

Not sure what she was supposed to understand, having been lost in her own thoughts, she nodded. "Yes, Ma'am."

"Then that report won't write itself, will it?" Gina raised an eyebrow at her and gestured towards the door. Not needing to be told twice, she quickly left the office and caught sight of Beth. Grabbing the PC's arm she was quickly informed that the suspects had all been charged.

Thanking Beth, the brunette watched through the double doors as, one-by-one, Lewis, Ben and Nicole were booked back into custody and returned to their cells. With a sigh, she turned away and headed to the Sergeants office to start on the requested report.

X-X

As the brunette opened the door to her flat, she sighed. Today had almost being a disaster. She knew Callum and Gina were right and that if she hadn't been careful she could have ended up dead. However she also knew that Page would have walked free if she hadn't delayed him so that Callum could track him down.

Shaking her head, she put work to the back of her mind and flicked through the mail aimlessly. Discarding of it on the table in the hall, she quickly flicked the kettle on and yawned. Clearly her first day had worn her out. Deciding a bath was what she needed, she headed into the bathroom and perched on the side of the bath as she turned on the tap.

After sixteen years as a police officer, she still loved her job and she didn't think about the risks she took when she clocked on shift every day. At all three of her previous nicks she'd been the same and maybe that was why she was onto her fourth station and she'd only being promoted once. The general idea was that you transferred when you were promoted. That had only been the case once and even that transfer had been partly fuelled by a personal reason.

Switching the water from hot to cold, she sighed; she knew that she could wind people up, come across as being reckless and a bit of a liability but she knew she was a good cop. She worked hard and didn't hold back from doing the dirty work when she needed to but she also knew she was what many people called difficult. It had never bothered her before but it seemed her transfer to SunHill had made her feel a little less at ease with that fact.


	4. Chapter 4

**_Thank you once again to Serenbex, Girisha1 and HMbookqueen for your lovely reviews! I'm so grateful for your support, it means so much._**

 ** _Also thank you to HMbookqueen for favouriting/following me, you lovely person, it's much appreciated._**

 _ **Oh and to Girisha1... First of all, I'm sorry I couldn't update before now but, like you, I started college on Monday and I was very busy, so apologies all round on that score. However, as promised, I've got some Stevie/Smithy for you in this chapter, so I hope that makes up for the delay in updating.**_

 _ **Enjoy! ;)**_

"Sarge?"

Harriet glanced up from her position leaning against the custody desk and frowned. Stepping sideways, she peered round the corner to see who'd shouted her, dragging the fan along the desk to keep her cool in the mid-August heat.

"Ben?" Harriet frowned as the PC held open the double doors at the end of the corridor.

"DS Turner's just got back; shall I ask him to interview Hayley Rhodes with me?" Harriet nodded and informed the PC that Emma was in Interview room one with the suspect.

In the four months since she'd transferred to SunHill, a fair amount had happened. There'd been four new PC's arrive and Nikki Wright had transferred out of SunHill a few weeks ago, with her replacement, Rachel Weston, arriving a fortnight ago .

Harriet had settled in well with the relief. Stevie and Jo, in particular, had become close friends with the uniform Sergeant and the trio had become well known around the station for their regular wind up's on Smithy and Mickey. However, people still didn't know much about the brunette's past and Harriet wasn't about to enlighten them.

Unsurprisingly, her relationship with Callum hadn't improved, either, since her first day but the Inspector continually paired them together regardless, only separating them when the other was sent to work on the custody desk or their tempers got the better of them. Inspector Gold had had them in her office at least twice in the past month after one of their bust ups.

She grinned at Smithy as the man appeared beside her and loped an arm around her neck. Her smile faded when she spotted Callum and Millie heading out of one of the interview rooms, the man aiming a cold look in her direction.

"What's wrong with you?" Smithy glanced at the look on Harriet's face.

"Sergeant Sensitive." Harriet sighed as she leant against the inside of the desk. Smithy peered round the corner and smirked as he spotted his colleagues.

"I reckon the Inspector paired him with Millie so he could show off his people skills."

Harriet snorted. "I've nicked people with better people skills than him."

"Don't let Stone hear you saying that!" Smithy grinned as there was suddenly a loud crash and a few choice swear words before Stevie appeared beside the desk. Grinning at the two Uniform Sergeants, she folded her arms.

"Alright, loves?" The blonde leant against the wall as Harriet snorted at her friend's obvious attempts to check out Smithy's bum without been caught by the man.

"Well I was but it seems you, calamity Jane, have disturbed the peace in my calm custody suite."

Stevie grinned at her close friend. "Gotta make an entrance."

"What'd you want anyway, Moss?" Harriet leaned over and pressed the release button to the door of the custody suite for Tony and Leon.

"It's Friday," Stevie replied, pushing herself off the wall as the two officers entered with a young man. "And it's been a shit week so I reckon were well over due a night on the tiles"

"Am I invited?" Smithy called from his position crouched on the floor helping Leon search the man.

"If you're buying us drinks, then of course, love."

"Anything for you, Moss" Smithy shot back as he stood up and winked at the detective, placing the man's possessions on the desk. Harriet looked up from filling in the entry form and caught Leon's eye, smirking at the flirting occurring between Smithy and the blonde.

"So I'll see you at the Blah bar at eight, then?" Stevie turned and surveyed the four officers stood beside her.

"Rule me out." Tony responded with a laugh as he scribbled his signature on the bottom of the form Harriet had just pushed towards him. "I'm done with wild nights out. It's not worth the week long hangover."

Stevie rolled her eyes as Harriet grabbed the cell keys from under the desk and led Leon and the newly booked in prisoner towards the cells. "You three?"

"Of course we are." Smithy responded with a grin. "This is Harriet and Leon's first night out at SunHill."

"Better stock up on painkillers, then." Stevie shared a smirk with Smithy as Leon raised his eyebrows at Harriet who simply shook her head in response.

X-X

"Harriet!" The brunette spun round from her position in the doorway to the bar as she heard her name being called. Spotting various members of SunHill taking up the far corner of the bar they'd all agreed to meet at, she smiled and walked over to join them.

Dropping into the seat beside Will, she caught Jo's eye from across the table and the detective leant forward, smiling softly. "You look gorgeous." Jo whispered, sensing her colleague's nervousness.

"Are you hitting on me, Ms Masters?" Harriet replied with a nervous smirk.

"Oh, don't. I've already had Mickey rabbiting on about whether I'm on the pull tonight" Jo rolled her eyes. "Don't let him hear you saying that, you'll send his tiny mind into overdrive."

"And we can't be having that, can we?" The two brunettes shared a grin as Stevie sauntered over to their table, a large glass of red wine clutched tightly in her hand.

"Har!" The blonde launched herself at the uniform Sergeant. By the looks of things, it appeared as if Stevie had already been here a while. "Have you got a drink? Where's your drink? Will, be a gent and go and buy Harriet a drink. What you drinking?"

The TDC laughed and shook his head at the blonde. "What you having, then, Sarge?"

"It's Harriet out of work, Will." Harriet attempted to disentangle herself from the tiny woman sprawled across her and the bench she was sat on. "Vodka and Lime, thanks, love."

As Will disappeared towards the bar with Mickey, she managed to manoeuvre Stevie from on top of her and position her beside her on the bench. Spotting the blonde eyeballing someone stood beside the steps leading to the main part of the bar, she leaned forward to see who it was and smirked as she spotted Smithy staring back at the blonde. Spotting the Sergeant watching him knowingly, he quickly turned away as Stevie muttered something about going to get another drink and left the bench. When Harriet glanced back, Smithy was gone.

"Those two are unbelievably obvious." Sam muttered as she shook her head and took a gulp of her drink. "It's almost embarrassing."

"Especially seen as one of them is a detective." Harriet grinned as Will returned and placed the woman's drink in front of her.

Sam and Jo chuckled as the older woman placed her glass on the table. "So, did you know anyone at SunHill before you transferred here?"

"Not anyone who works here now," Harriet took a sip of her drink. "But I knew one of your old officers."

"Who?" Sam and Mickey chimed in unison.

"PC Cameron Tait." Sam's eyes widened slightly at the name.

"How the hell did you know Cameron?" The blonde frowned.

"I took three months leave from the job when I was twenty three" Harriet folded her arms. "That must have been… 1997. I'd been doing it for five years at that point and I wanted to see some more of the world and so I went to Australia with a few friends. Cameron was mates with this bloke who started seeing one of my friends. He was 21, I think, and it seemed like he was fairly new to being a copper at the time and when he found out I was a cop, we ended up latching onto each other."

"Did anything happen between you?" Mickey asked.

"No way. We were just mates." Harriet laughed and shook her head.

Silence descended upon the table until the sound of heels clicking sharply on the ground distracted them and they glanced up at Stevie, who was clutching Smithy's wrist with one hand and her drink with the other. Her makeup looked slightly smeared and her hair was ruffled. Shaking her head, Harriet grinned as she realised what her friend had been up to.

"Sally just rang; her, Nate and Kezia have just come off shift so their gonna meet us at the club." The blonde took a gulp of her drink and staggered slightly. "You guys coming?"

"No thanks, Stevie;" Sam drained her glass and stood up, collecting her things. "Abi's going on a hen do tomorrow so I'm looking after Rose and trust me, a hangover and a three year old do not mix well"

Similarly, Will, Emma, Banksy, Stuart and Ben opted out of going to the club as they all had early starts the following day. Once it seemed that the remaining officers were willing to head down to the club with her, Stevie beamed and started gathering up her things.

Following the crowd of tipsy officers out of the bar, Harriet put her arm around the petite blonde stood beside her, partially out of fondness but mostly to make sure she didn't fall over.

"You're a dirty girl!" Harriet whispered in her ear with a grin.

The blonde giggled. "It was just a snog, babe, and anyway, he's bloody hot!"


	5. Chapter 5

**_Thank you to Serenbex, Girisha1, HMbookqueen and Guest for your lovely reviews. It's much appreciated._**

 ** _Oh and to the Guest who wanted to know about Harriet's past, I can tell you that Harriet's past is about to rear it's ugly head very, very soon. :)_**

 _ **Enjoy! ;)**_

Harriet rolled over and stretched out her arm across the mattress. She jumped up at the feeling of flesh on flesh but breathed out in relief as she realised it was Stevie. Pressing her face into the pillow in an attempt to forget about her thumping headache, she cursed her colleagues for getting her so drunk.

The club had been eventful; Nate and Beth had disappeared a while after they arrived at the bar and Smithy and Stevie had holed themselves up in a corner of the club. Harriet had found herself sat with Jo, Mickey, Sally, Leon and Mel doing round after round of shots. After exhausting herself dancing with Mel, she'd announced she was leaving and, from what she remembered, Stevie, Smithy and Mickey had joined her in the taxi home.

As Stevie was asleep next to her, she presumed that Smithy and Mickey must have also spent the night. Climbing out of bed, she padded out of the room and towards the living room. Poking her head around the door, she spotted Mickey sprawled out across the sofa with his face pressed into the arm and Smithy tucked up in the armchair. Rolling her eyes and smiling fondly at her two friends, she headed for the kitchen and flicked the kettle on.

Leaning against the kitchen counter, she yawned and closed her eyes, relishing the feel of the cool kitchen in the stifling summer heat. As her phone burst into life, she jumped and hit her head on the kitchen cabinet behind her. Cursing softly, she grabbed the device and pushed it to her ear as she rubbed the back of her head.

"Hello?" The brunette moved towards the cupboards, hunting for paracetamol.

"Harriet, its Callum." The woman rolled her eyes as she tracked down the box she was looking for and quickly popped out a couple of tablets.

"What's wrong?" She moved to the sink and quickly filled a glass of water.

"It's hectic down here. There's rioting on the Jasmine Allen and the Larkmeade; I've sent everyone else down already but we need a couple extra bodies on the Jasmine Allen." Callum answered the brunette. "It's Smithy's day off and Rachel and the Inspector have both called in sick. I figured that seen as your on shift at two, anyway, I might as well ask you to come in earlier rather than ask Smithy on his day off."

Sighing, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She understood the logic in asking her rather than Smithy but, seen as it was Callum not the Inspector who was asking, she was surprised. Normally Callum avoided Harriet like the plague and would happily inconvenience Smithy or Rachel to avoid her.

"Give me twenty minutes and I'll be down there."

Quickly, she showered and dressed before scribbling a note for her friends telling them where she was. Jumping into her car she slammed her foot down on the accelerator, going as fast as she could. Riots were common territory to Police Officers but if you were low on numbers then rioters would happily take advantage of that loophole.

Sprinting into the station, she changed into her uniform and then headed off to find Callum. Spotting him in reception, she pushed through the door and watched as he attempted to juggle a phone conversation while barking orders into his radio. Turning, he spotted the brunette and nodded his head back towards the corridor she'd just come through.

Once they were in the area car and heading towards the Jasmine Allen, she took the opportunity to question him more about the riots. "Why are they rioting?"

Callum spun the car into the entrance of the estate smoothly. "The first and fourth tower block of the Jasmine Allen and the fifth and sixth tower block of the Larkmeade are being demolished. Those that are being evicted have kicked off at those whose tower blocks aren't been demolished."

"Bloody council."

As the car stopped, the brunette threw herself out of the vehicle and Harriet and Callum sprinted under the bridge to where the crowd was. "Is there anyone in particular I should keep an eye out for?"

"Thomas Hedland, Ewan Herbert and Curtis Casper. Their regular at riots like this and their rumoured to be responsible for todays." Callum replied. As they surveyed the scene in front of them, Callum reached into his trouser pockets and pulled out multiple sheets of paper. Flicking through the three profiles for the men, Harriet noted that all three had records of GBH and public disorder charges, amongst others. Shoving the sheets into her pocket she grabbed her riot shield. "If you see them, radio it in. I don't want _you_ doing anything stupid."

The brunette opened her mouth to protest to what seemed like a personal criticism but before she could say anything, the crowd surged forward and she was forced to duck behind her riot shield as multiple burning glass bottles flew towards her. Noticing several members of the crowd making their way towards the bridge, she sprinted round the side and blocked their path, using her shield to prevent them throwing anything at her.

Once she'd managed to contain the small group and return them to the main crowd, she moved to return to her position at the front however her attention was caught by a member of the ever growing crowd. Stood at the edge, beer bottle in his hand and his other hand inside his pocket, she watched as he looked her up and down and smirked before striding away in the direction of the fourth tower block.

Glancing back to where her colleagues were stood, the brunette chewed her lip. Callum had warned her not to go off on her own private mission but she couldn't help herself; it had seemed like a personal criticism of her abilities and she knew she was just as capable as anyone else. Besides, Callum wasn't her senior officer so he couldn't pull rank with her over her actions, anyway.

Turning on her heel, Harriet spotted the man pushing through the graffiti covered doors of the tower block and she broke into a sprint to keep him in view. Thinking back through the images of the three suspects she'd been told to keep her eye out for, she recognised the man as Curtis Casper. Slowing slightly as she reached the double doors, she pushed them open softly and an almighty creak echoed through the deserted building. Moving to peer through the gap between the staircases at either side, she stood on her tiptoes to try and find the suspect but frowned when she couldn't see or hear him.

Glancing across the room she spotted another set of double doors leading to the other side of the tower block and briefly considered that Casper may have walked straight though. Just as the Sergeant was about to head through the doors into the small playing area behind the building, she heard a beer can hit the ground from a few floors up and Harriet immediately flew up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

Spotting the beer can on the landing of the fifth floor, Harriet headed down the corridor, peering into the various rooms. The flats were empty and rubbish had been piled in the middle of the corridors. Reaching the end of the corridor, the brunette sighed and turned, slamming straight into someone stood behind her. Blinking, she spotted the unruly ginger curls and almost groaned as she realised it was Curtis Casper.

Grabbing the brunette's wrist, Curtis pulled her into one of the abandoned flats and slammed the door shut. He grabbed an abandoned chair leg and hooked it under the door handle to ensure no one could come inside. Turning back to face Harriet, his face curled into a nasty smirk.

"Well, well, well," He folded his arms and stepped forward. "What have we here, then?"

Harriet narrowed her eyes at the man and met his gaze, refusing to show any sign of fear. "Curtis Casper," She placed her hands on her hips. "This your flat, is it? Or should I say, was." The smirk dropped from the man's face and he leaned forward menacingly. Realising the woman was taunting him, he stepped back and breathed deeply through his nose. "Being passed down the family, has it? Was the emotional connection to this place what made you start the riot? Not that it'll all amount to much, anyway; the flat will still be demolished and you'll just have another charge added to your rap sheet as well as failing your family."

Without warning, Curtis lurched forward and grabbed the woman by her hair, knocking her hat to the ground. He spun her round so she was facing the window where she could see the crowds below. "Look at that," He hissed in her ear. "All your little friends down there, not having a clue where you are, not caring and then your with me, up here, all alone."

The brunette froze suddenly at his words, her heart hammering in her chest at the images conjuring up in her mind at his words. "What you gonna do, Casper?"

"Wait and see." As the man loosened his grip, Harriet threw her head backwards, catching the man in his jaw and sending him stumbling backwards. As he moved his hand to his lip, Harriet grabbed her asp from her belt and held it out in front of her.

Smirking, Curtis wiped his bleeding lip on his t-shirt and straightened up. Harriet turned slightly as she heard a shout from outside the door and, as she returned her gaze to the man, she saw him flying towards her, his weight landing on top of her and sending her crashing to the floor. She turned so the man was straddling her and she used her asp and her arms to attempt to push his weight off her. Suddenly her asp was knocked from her hand and the brunette gritted her teeth as she felt his fist pummelling into the flesh of her face, the gut churning sound of bones cracking.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Thank you to Serenbex, HMbookqueen, Girisha1 and Guest for your lovely reviews. Your reviews always brighten up my day and I'm so grateful!**_

 _ **To the Guest who reviewed saying Harriet should go undercover, I really like that idea and I'm seriously considering it but I'm not sure if it'll be in this fic because I'm currently writing chapter 16 and we're nearing the end (cue sad face) so I already know where I'm gonna take it and wrap it up. But, if you guys want, I'm not ruling out a sequel...**_

 _ **Also, in response to your question about uploading a photo of Harriet, I'm gonna struggle to do that for multiple reasons; Harriet's appearance is mostly based off me - she's the same height as me, the same build and we have the same hair colour. However, Harriet has brown eyes and I have blue eyes. In my head, Harriet's eyes are very much like Jacqueline Jossa's but Jacqueline is too small and young to be Harriet. Also, Harriet is 34 (more than twice my age and 11 years older than Jacqueline) so it's very hard for me to find someone who I'd say she looks like. But if you have any suggestions just let me know and I'll take a look. I do actually think about this ALOT, haha!**_

 _ **Oh and this fic is set during Series 24 (2008).**_

 _ **Enjoy! ;)**_

"Sally, go round to the left and help contain that side of the crowd." Callum ordered. He turned, counting how many officers were stood alongside him. Spotting he was an officer down, he frowned. Noticing Leon and Mel to his right and only one officer to his left, he realised that Harriet had moved. Letting out an angry growl, he peered round wildly. "Leon, Mel, have you seen Sergeant Barclay?" Both officers shook their head in response.

Callum felt a churning in his stomach as he remembered what he'd said; _'I don't want **you** doing anything stupid'_. He should have known she'd have felt like he was criticising her abilities and wouldn't have taken it lying down. He didn't know what it was that irritated him so much about the brunette but he knew well enough that Harriet would have, if the opportunity arose, made it her mission to prove herself to Callum.

Suddenly he thought back to the three suspects they'd been warned to look out for and shuffled slightly to try and locate them in the crowd. Ewan Herbert was been detained by a couple of officers, been pushed into a riot van as another officer used a fire extinguisher to take out a line of burning wheelie bins. Thomas Hedland was immersed in the crowd, chanting and hurling beer bottles along with the rest of the growing crowd. Curtis Casper, however, was nowhere to be seen.

"Mel," He turned to the woman beside him. "Call Smithy and get him down here." As the brunette turned and headed away to make the call, Callum attempted to ignore the churning in his stomach.

Callum returned his attention to the crowd; it was growing rapidly and, as he ducked as a burning chair arm came flying towards him, he realised that Harriet and Curtis could be anywhere on the estate. Suddenly an idea struck him and he moved away from the crowd.

"Sierra Oscar from 30;" He raised his radio to his mouth. "Can you check the CCTV from in and around the fourth and first tower blocks on the Jasmine Allen Estate in the last ten to fifteen minutes for any sightings of Sergeant Barclay and an IC1 male with curly hair?"

As the radio operator confirmed he'd received the request and somebody was looking into it, Smithy jogged over and joined the man. "Callum," Smithy nodded his head towards the crowd. "How's it going?"

"Well for now we've managed to keep it contained but the crowds growing and their all getting more pissed off as time goes on so there's no saying how much longer we'll be able to keep it that way."

"Anybody I should keep an eye on?"

"Thomas Hedland's somewhere in the crowd and Ewan Herbert's just been nicked for arson by the looks of it." He pointed towards the burnt wheelie bins. "There's one more suspect; Curtis –."

"Casper." Smithy finished the man's sentence. Callum frowned. "I've just seen him near the fourth tower block."

"Was anybody with him?" Callum asked urgently, fidgeting slightly as his stomach turned.

"Nah, he wasn't causing trouble so I decided that I'd leave him to it. Keeps him out of our way for a while." Smithy shrugged and adjusted his hat.

Callum nodded and indicated to the man as to where he should go. Glancing over at the fourth tower block he narrowed his eyes; the glass panels were graffiti covered and he struggled to see through the gaps of light.

"30 from Sierra Oscar." Callum's radio crackled into life and he jumped.

"Go ahead."

"Sergeant Barclay was seen heading into the fourth tower block twelve minutes ago with an IC1 male that fitted your description."

"Is there any CCTV in the tower block itself?"

"There could be but whether we'll be able to access it is unsure as the council funded CCTV was removed when the flats were cleared." Callum almost groaned. "There could be private CCTV footage from the security team who are keeping an eye on the flats until demolition day."

"Would the security team really have fitted CCTV? It's a lot of hassle for a fortnights work."

"Shall I get someone to look into it, Sarge?"

Callum paused. "No, no. Just see if you can assign another unit down here, if you can."

Glancing back to where his colleagues were positioned, Callum made a split second decision to go into the fourth tower block and look around himself. Jogging under the bridge, he crashed straight into Roger.

"Looking for someone, Sarge?" The man smiled softly.

Callum shook his head. "Im just gonna see if there's anything kicking off anywhere else on the estate."

"Want a hand?"

"No thanks, Roger. Smithy's just arrived so get yourself back over there." Callum smiled tightly at the PC and pointed his thumb over his shoulder.

He continued on, only stopping to tell a bunch of teenage boys to move on when they jeered at him. Pushing open one of the double doors leading into the tower block, he quietly moved to the bottom of the stairs before heading up them, his feet barely touching the ground. As he crossed the landing on the fifth floor leading to the sixth floor staircase, something caught his eye and he turned; an empty beer can had been dropped at the entrance leading to the corridor of flats on the fifth floor.

Pausing, Callum peered through the gaps in the graffiti covered windows to check on the crowd. Once he was assured that they didn't need his help, he advanced down the corridor, peering into the abandoned flats along the corridor. Noticing that one of the flats had a closed door and the others didn't, the man sped up and stopped outside the door, listening carefully.

Callum placed his hand on the door handle and attempted to open it. He growled as it refused to budge and turned away to find something to open it, catching his boot on the door. Moving to the long window at the end of the corridor, he sighed. Resting his head on the cold glass, he jumped as he heard a shuffling noise and he moved behind the wall leading to the emergency exit.

He stayed still for a moment, listening for any signs of anybody. It seemed like almost ten minutes had passed before there was a scraping noise and the sound of someone walking in his direction alerted him. Callum turned just in time for Curtis to appear round the corner, walking slap bang into the man. Callum, who was taller and stronger, knocked him back slightly and he blinked before smirking and attempting to make a run for it. The Sergeant grabbed him, however, before he could.

Once he'd stopped attempting to wriggle out of the man's vice like grip, he turned and narrowed his eyes at Callum. "Shame about the other one, ain't it? The pretty bird."

Callum's stomach lurched and he glared at him. "Where is she? What've you done?"

Curtis grinned. "She's resting now, ever so safe. Shame that I had to ruin those pretty looks." Callum took a deep breath to stop himself lashing out at the man and simply unhooked his cuffs from his belt.

"Curtis Casper," Callum cuffed the man, making sure the cuffs were just a bit too tight and therefore painful. "I am arresting you on suspicion of assault; you do not have to say anything but it may harm your defence if you do not mention, when questioned, something which you may later rely on court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence."

Curtis didn't flinch. "Assault? Man, I did her over way worse than that."

Callum grabbed his radio at the man's words. "876 from 30; I've got Curtis Casper under arrest on the fifth floor in the fourth tower block, can you and Ben get over here and take him?"

"30 from 876; were on our way, Sarge." Once Ben and Nate had taken Curtis Casper, Callum ran back to the flat in search of Harriet.

He screeched to a halt at the sight of the blood stain that was covering a section of the living room floor. More worryingly, however, was that Callum couldn't see Harriet anywhere. He turned and spotted three doors to the left of him. Crashing through the first two doors, he glanced around and his heart hammered heavily in his chest when he couldn't see the brunette. Flying through the final door he noticed that the bath had the shower curtain pulled across and he yanked it back. He felt a mixture of relief and horror as he saw the brunettes battered and bruised body sprawled haphazardly along the bath.

"Sierra Oscar from 30; urgent ambulance required to the fourth tower block on the Jasmine Allen estate." Callum crouched down and grabbed Harriet's limp hand, checking for a pulse. His stomach lurched as it took a terrifying few seconds for him to feel it beating faintly.

Callum leant forward, scooping the Sergeant out of the bath and laying her on the bathroom floor. He began compressions and mouth-to-mouth, his heart beating heavily. When he checked the brunettes pulse again, he was relieved that her pulse seemed slightly stronger.

Scooping her into his arms again, he carried her out of the flat, where he was greeted by Mel and Beth who looked on in horror at the sight of their bruised and bloodied Sergeant being carried by their other Sergeant. Callum ignored them, heading straight towards the stairwell as he heard the ambulance sirens. Reaching the exit, the paramedics took Harriet from his arms and he glanced over himself; he was covered in an alarming amount of Harriet's blood.

"Are you coming with her?" Callum glanced up as a paramedic turned to Mel.

Before the PC could reply, Callum jumped forward. "No, I am." The paramedic smiled tightly and pointed to the ambulance. Callum climbed into the back of the ambulance, taking Harriet's hand in his, his eyes unable to move from Harriet's face


	7. Chapter 7

**_Thank_ **_**you's are owed to HMbookqueen, Serenbex and Guest for your lovely reviews!**_

 _ **And yes, Callum worrying about Harriet is adorable! It melts my heart... and you three's hearts, too, if your reviews are anything to go by.**_

 _ **Also, thank you to Pitbull Almighty and helsbels90 for adding FS to your story alerts! So grateful!**_

 _ **Oh and to HMbookqueen, I wouldn't say no to Callum, either... or Smithy... Or Max! But definitely not Callum! ;)**_

 _ **Right, then! Time for you to find out all about our girl Harriet Barclay's past...**_

It seemed like hours had passed before Callum saw Harriet again after their arrival at St Hugh's; she'd been wheeled away immediately after they'd left the ambulance while Callum had been sent to the waiting room. Millie and Roger had come to take a statement from him an hour later but then he'd been left to wait.

Just after six, one of the nurses approached him, informing him that Harriet had regained consciousness a while ago but she'd been given medication and was currently asleep. When he asked if he could see her, she nodded reluctantly and led him towards her cubicle. He pushed back the curtain and dropped into the chair beside her bed.

She looked peaceful, almost like she was relishing the rest. She didn't move. Her hair, still matted with blood, fanned out above her. Callum turned his attention to her face; it was badly bruised and the swelling meant that her eyes were barely distinguishable. The thin white hospital sheet covered her body almost like she was a corpse.

He closed his eyes and attempted to forget about his last thought. When he opened them again, he jumped at the sight of the Doctor stood across from him.

"Sergeant Stone?" Callum nodded. "Im Doctor Madison. I oversaw Harriet's treatment today."

"Her treatment?"

"When Ms Barclay was admitted to us, we spotted bruising and bleeding on the top of her head and made the decision to run a CT scan. Luckily, there wasn't anything abnormal and it was just external wounds."

"So she could have been kicked or punched in the head?" Callum spat.

"It's a possibility." The Doctor consulted his clipboard. "She was lucky. She doesn't have any broken bones and her injuries mainly consist of bad bleeding and severe bruising."

Callum processed the words slowly. "So she'll make a full recovery?"

"For sure. The pain relief we gave her was quite strong due to the extent of her injuries but she should be okay." The Doctor smiled tightly. "If you need anything, just shout." Callum nodded as the man disappeared through the curtain.

Callum rested his head against the back of the chair and sighed; before today he would have seen this as an opportunity to prove to Harriet, and himself, that he was the better of the two Sergeants. The competition between them was, at times, brutal. Rachel and Smithy, not to mention the PC's, regularly found themselves trapped between them, with Smithy tending to take Harriet's side while Rachel seemed to ignore them both. Now, as he looked on at the woman laid silently in the bed, he felt guilty. They were both as bad as the other but it seemed only Harriet had paid the price for their stubbornness.

"Callum." The man jumped and blinked up at the Inspector, dressed in her civvies and looking suitably pale, who was standing in the entrance to the cubicle.

"Ma'am." He adjusted his shirt and straightened up.

"What happened?" She moved round the bed and stared at the brunette.

"She… She saw Curtis Casper, the bloke who we thought was responsible for the riot. She must have… Well she did go after him."

"So she decided to play supercop and it backfired?" Gina shook her head. "Harriet knows that you don't go after a suspect alone. She's been doing this job long enough to know that."

"No, Ma'am, I goaded her." Callum avoided the woman's gaze. "I made it seem like she wasn't capable of doing her job, like she wasn't good enough."

The Inspector took a deep breath. "So you're both to blame for how today ended up?"

"I guess we are."

"Well in that case I want the pair of you to sort this pathetic rivalry out once and for all." Gina stood up and glared at Callum.

"Is this really the place, Ma'am?"

"Every cloud has a silver lining, Sergeant, so take the opportunity to use wiping the slate clean as your silver lining." She raised an eyebrow. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go home and fully recover from this stupid bug because clearly I can't leave you alone for five minutes."

As the Inspector left the cubicle, Callum shuffled in the chair to find a comfier position. He figured the armchair wasn't the best place to spend the night but neither was he prepared to leave Harriet on her own.

X-X

Callum blinked sleepily as he felt someone jabbing at his arm. He attempted to ignore it before there was a pause followed by a smack to his forearm. He opened his eyes and glanced round in confusion. As he remembered the reason why he was slumped in the armchair, he sat up and glanced at the brunette who was blinking at him.

"You were snoring." She said hoarsely, her voice barely audible.

"I was?" Callum shuffled awkwardly.

"Yeah," Harriet replied, a smile twisting her lips. "Loudly."

"How you feeling?" Callum checked his watch and realised it had just gone three in the morning. He was due back on shift in four hours.

"Not great." Harriet shuffled under the covers. "I'll be fine, though."

"Harriet, what I said yesterday, I… I was wrong." Callum pointedly avoided the woman's eyes. "I implied you weren't capable of doing your job and you are. Of course you are. Not just anyone gets promoted to Sergeant."

"I don't even know why I let you get to me so much, you just do." Harriet glanced at Callum and he looked back at her softly. Harriet looked away quickly. "I wanted to prove myself to you yesterday and it backfired. Ever since I arrived we've been taking every comment almost as if it's a dare to prove ourselves but were still the same rank in the same department at the end of it all."

"I know it doesn't seem like an appropriate time or place but maybe we should take this opportunity to move on and draw a line under things."

"No time like the present." Harriet smiled softly and pushed herself up the bed, wincing in pain. Callum immediately jumped forward but Harriet swatted him away.

"But, Harriet, I don't really know you, except for the essential details."

Harriet hesitated; opening up about her life wasn't something she did. Not often, anyway. However, she liked SunHill and she liked her colleagues. She'd made real friends here in Stevie, Smithy, Jo and Mickey and she didn't want to leave Sun Hill like she had all her previous nicks. "Well I suppose starting at the beginning would be best."

"Probably."

"I was born in Barnsley on March 28th 1974. My mum was a stay-at-home mum and my dad was a copper; Superintendent Albert Barclay." Harriet sighed. "My sister, Tanya, was born in 1977 and my brother, Jack, in 1981. My parent's marriage wasn't stable and my dad had countless affairs with the young PC's at the nick. Mum used to get so jealous that she'd break down in tears and I'd have to go and comfort her and hide Jack and Tanya away so they wouldn't see. He used to hit her, too, mostly when she confronted him about the affairs but when he'd had too much to drink as well. Anyway, mum left when I was fourteen, she took Tanya and Jack because of how young they were but she left me with dad, apparently I was capable of looking after myself. It didn't take long for dad to start taking his anger out on me."

"Once I'd turned sixteen and left school, I left home. I moved to Sheffield and spent a couple of years squatting and doing odd jobs such as waitressing and market trading. The year after I left, dad was killed in a stabbing. He was a bent cop and wrapped up in all sorts of shady deals and apparently he'd pissed off the wrong person. His killer was never brought to justice and sometimes I think that's why I became a copper, to avenge his death. I know it wasn't, though. I'd wanted to be a police officer for as long as I could remember. So I soon as I hit eighteen, I decided that's what I'd do."

Harriet sneaked a glance at Callum. He was watching her intensely and the woman felt her stomach twist slightly at the look he was aiming in her direction. "Carry on." He replied quietly. "It's okay."

"Six years after I signed up, I was sent undercover to gather evidence against a dealer who'd been selling dodgy drugs that'd killed a number of kids on the estate. I almost got him but a bloke I'd nicked a couple of years ago came along and busted my cover. Not long after that, I was transferred to Newcastle Central. I quite liked it there, there was never a quiet day, anyway." Harriet chewed her lip gently. "I started seeing one of the DC's up there; Robert Morris. I fell pregnant about eighteen months later but… I was chasing a burglar through a block of flats and he pushed me off. I lost the baby. Me and Robert limped along for a few months but we couldn't fix things and we ended up splitting later that year." Harriet took a deep breath. "A Sergeant's position came up at Luton East that November and I took the opportunity to transfer. It made things a lot easier and it gave me the chance to make a fresh start. I did three years there before I transferred here in May." Harriet let out a breath of relief, biting down on her lip hard as she felt a wave of emotions crash over her.

Callum sat motionless for a moment before he reached out and took Harriet's hand in is. He glanced up as her eyes filled with tears of relief. Without saying a word, he pulled her into his arms and held her tightly, letting her tears spill into his chest, her arms clinging onto his shirt as if it were a lifeline.


	8. Chapter 8

**_Two updates in two days?! I know, crazy, right?_**

 ** _Anyway, thank you to Serenbex, Guest and HMbookqueen for your lovely reviews, they made my day._**

 ** _And yeah, HMbookqueen, I totally understand where your coming from; Callum, Max and Smithy are beautiful people. But ooh, your a major Max lover, eh? Hahahaha. ;)_**

After her enforced two weeks leave, the minimum amount of time the newly promoted Inspector Weston had allowed Harriet to take off, the Sergeant returned to work on the condition she had to stick to station duties for another two weeks. The brunette had complained endlessly to Smithy and Callum about the injustice of it but both men had simply rolled their eyes and told the woman she was lucky she wasn't been forced to take even longer off.

On the Monday of her second week back, Harriet was lounging in the canteen, avoiding returning to logging evidence for as long as she could, when Mickey bounded over to her. He dropped into the chair across from her and smirked.

"Alright, trouble?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at the familiar look on the detectives face. "What's happened?"

"Jo went on a date last night."

Harriet laughed. "Who with?"

"Some Welsh bird." The man took a sneaky mouthful of the woman's tea. "Sarah, I think she was called."

Harriet grinned as she spotted Jo entering the canteen with Terry. "Does Jo know you, and probably Stevie, are making her station gossip?"

"Well we haven't told her but she's a detective, she'll work it out." Harriet avoided pointing out that Stevie and Mickey were repeat offenders at making people station gossip and Jo would have worked it out whether she was a detective or not. "Anyway, I have proper police work to do, some of us aren't just glorified receptionists."

"Oh shut up." Harriet pulled a face at the man's retreating back and aimed a rude hand gesture in his direction.

"Well I'm glad you didn't break your fingers otherwise there's no way you'd be able to do that." Harriet turned and smirked at Callum who was leaning against the wall behind her.

"He deserved it! He called me a glorified receptionist." Harriet cried incredulously.

Callum laughed. "If anyone should know what a glorified receptionist is, it's DC Webb. He does spend all day being one." Harriet laughed; a whole hearted laugh that lit up her eyes. For the first time, he realised that Harriet's eyes were some of the warmest eyes he'd ever seen. Snapping himself out of his thoughts, he returned his attention to the woman.

"What do you want from me anyway, Sergeant Stone?" She poked her tongue out at him to show she was teasing when he frowned at the use of his rank.

"Lauren Peters; we've got her in the soft interview room."

"Lauren Peters… I know that name." Harriet paused with her hand on the canteen door. "She was in here a couple of months ago after her car was torched."

"I thought you might know her seen as she's asked for you." Callum replied.

"What happened to her?" Harriet leant against the corridor to let DCI Meadows and DI Manson past.

"She's been attacked."

"What? How; physically, sexually?" Harriet turned to look at the man beside her.

Callum stopped outside the door to the soft interview room. "I think it's likely to be a sexual attack from her behaviour and the state we found her in. There is bruising but it seems to me like there possibly from when her attacker held her down rather than a premediated beating."

"Did she ring it in?"

"No her neighbour Miss… Lowery did. She heard a disturbance and what sounded like Lauren shouting before there was a crash and she saw someone running out the back gate. We went under the presumption it was a burglary and the burglar didn't know Lauren would be inside and when he found out, he lashed out. When we got there it was clear that wasn't just it."

Tony appeared beside them and handed the male Sergeant a cup of tea. "Lauren's with the FME. She's agreed to have a vaginal swab done."

"Has anyone tried to talk to her?" Harriet frowned as she thought back to the feisty young woman who'd stormed into reception angrily after her car had been torched.

"DI Nixon tried just before we took her to the FME but all she said was that she wanted to talk to you." Tony shrugged. "DI Nixon wants to speak to you before you speak to Lauren, actually."

"Where is she?" Tony pointed towards CID and the brunette nodded. "When Lauren's finished with the FME, Tone, bring her back here and get her a cup of tea, if Im not back." The PC nodded and Harriet headed away towards CID, jogging up the stairs and bounding through the double doors.

Sam wasn't in her office so she made a beeline for one of the detectives. "Max," The detective glanced up lazily. "Have you seen Sam?"

"Briefing room." He replied bluntly. Harriet thanked him before heading to the other end of the room and pushing through the double doors. The brunette paused as a room full of people turned and glanced in her direction.

"Ma'am, I-."Harriet started but Sam simply gestured towards her office with her hand and Harriet quickly followed her superior's instructions. Max glanced up as the two women passed his desk but quickly returned to his phone conversation.

"Lauren Peters." Sam said simply as she closed the door to the DI's office. "She asked for you so I'm guessing you've dealt with her before"

"Her car was torched not long ago and I dealt with it." Harriet glanced up and pre-empted the blonde's next question. "It was a gang of drunken kids, Ma'am."

Sam nodded. "The thing is we've had a number of rape cases come forward in the last six months." Sam handed the taller woman a folder. "All of them of a similar age to Lauren Peters. The worrying thing is all of these women have refused to identify or give a physical description of their attacker."

"Is it the same MO for each case?"

"Except for Lauren Peters, yes." Sam frowned. "DCI Meadows wants to launch an investigation into the rape cases."

"And you think Lauren Peters could be our way in?"

"It's an opportunity." The DI gestured to the folder in the Sergeants arms. Harriet quickly opened it and looked through its contents. "That's all the evidence we've gathered on the four previous rape cases."

"That's not much" Harriet conceded. "But, Ma'am, I have a funny feeling Lauren Peters rape case has just come in at a coincidental time. I really don't think their linked to the other cases. You said yourself that Lauren Peters case wasn't the same as the others. After four previous, and successful, attempts at this, why would the attacker change his MO now?" Harriet shrugged.

"Im inclined to agree with you, Harriet." Sam replied with a shrug. "But the DCI is desperate to make this case stick and catch whoever did this so were following up every possible lead to see if it gives us something more to work with because at the moment were pretty much running on nothing."

"I'll talk to Lauren Peters, Ma'am" Harriet placed the file back on the woman's desk. "But I won't push her to tell me anything other than the truth just so the DCI can make this case stick."

Sam smiled softly. "I know, Harriet, I don't expect you to." Harriet nodded at the woman and headed back downstairs, bumping into Tony.

"Lauren Peters is in the soft interview room with Callum, Sarge, but she backed out of having the swab done at the last minute."

"Thanks, Tony." Harriet paused with her hand on the door to the soft interview room.

Hearing how fragile Lauren Peters had become after her attack petrified her. She could have been in her position. If Curtis Casper hadn't physically attacked her then she knew there was a chance that he could have sexually attacked her. He didn't think twice about beating her to a pulp and she doubted he'd think twice about raping her. The nightmares of feeling his body trapping her to the ground still plagued her and the now-fading cuts and bruises were a constant reminder of how lucky she'd been. Leaning against the wall she took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

"You okay?" Harriet glanced up and spotted Smithy looking at her in concern.

Harriet nodded and smiled weakly. "Course I am, love, just needed a breather that's all."

Smithy moved to lean against the wall beside her. "You don't have to pretend that you're over what happened, you know. It was only three weeks ago and your injuries still aren't fully healed."

Harriet sighed. "I know but it's easier sometimes to just… try and forget, you know?"

"Of course it is but you know that everyone here is willing to listen if you need them to."

"Thanks, Smithy, I appreciate it."

The man smiled and squeezed her arm gently, careful not to hurt her. "Go on." Harriet smiled and turned away to the soft interview room.


	9. Chapter 9

_**Thank you to Serenbex, Cat, Guest, PitbullA, HMbookqueen, Guest (2) and Abi for your, as always, lovely reviews!**_

 _ **I've got some major Jo and Smithy/Stevie fans here, I see. ;)**_

 _ **And to the Guest who reviewed saying they wanted them to kiss soon; be patient, sweetie, I've already written the chapter where they kiss and I'm about ten chapters ahead and, from what I remember, the Calliet kiss is about five chapters away.**_ _ **For now, though, enjoy Harriet in Sergeant Barclay mode! ;)**_

Holding the door open behind her, she motioned with her head for Callum to leave her to it, shooting the man a small smile as he passed. Settling herself in the seat beside the younger woman, she took a deep breath.

"Hi, Lauren," Harriet leant forward so that the blonde could see her. "I heard you wanted to talk to me."

Lauren looked up, wrapping her cardigan tightly around her. "I d-don't know what to s-say." She sniffed loudly and the Sergeant handed her a tissue.

"I need to ask you something now, Lauren, and I need you to answer me as best you can."

Lauren blinked and nodded slowly. "What is it?"

"When my colleagues attended the report of a disturbance at your home, they were under the impression they were attending a burglary gone wrong. When they got there and found you, they believed that something more had happened. Is that right?" Lauren nodded silently. "Did the attacker… sexually assault you, Lauren?"

There was a pause before the younger woman broke into a fresh wave of tears. Harriet immediately wrapped her arms around her, rubbing her back soothingly. Once she'd calmed down enough to talk, she sat up and took a deep breath. "Yes..."

"Lauren, do you feel ready to make a statement?" Harriet squeezed her hand gently. "If you don't then no one is going to force you but I want you to know that you can, if you want to."

"Will you stay with me while I do it?"

"Of course I will." Harriet replied gently with a soft smile.

"Alright, I'll do it." Lauren took a sip from the cardboard coffee cup in front of her.

Once Harriet had talked the young woman through everything she needed to know, she settled herself beside her and let her talk, telling her everything she could remember and in as much detail as she could. When a certain moment became too much for her and the blonde's eyes filled with tears, Harriet squeezed her hand and prompted her to move on by asking her various questions.

Once the statement was finished Harriet moved it aside and turned to face the woman again. "At this point, Lauren, we ask people if their willing to give us a description of their attacker and do a formal ID." Immediately Lauren shook her head and moved backwards away from the brunette.

"No, no, I can't!"

"Lauren, it's okay. You've done the hard part now, you've talked us through it," Harriet swallowed thickly. "You don't have to be scared, sweetheart, I promise you."

Lauren simply looked at her and shook her head. "Don't make me do it, Harriet, I don't want to see him or think about him ever again. Don't force me to do it or I'll withdraw my statement."

Harriet nodded slowly, knowing that pushing the woman wouldn't do any good. She gestured for the woman to stand up. "What do you want to do now, then?"

"I want to go home."

"Police officers are at your house at the minute, Lauren, so I'm afraid that's not possible." Harriet walked her towards the door and opened it quietly. "Is there anywhere else you could go?"

"There's my sister's..." She trailed off. "She won't be in but I have a spare set of keys to her place."

Harriet nodded. "Im going to get PC Stamp to drive you to your sister's and stay with you, is that okay?"

"Yeah." Harriet caught Beth's attention and mouthed for her to go find Tony. "Thank you for this, Harriet, I know you'll probably have been really busy and don't need me making personal requests."

Harriet squeezed the blonde's arm. "Don't worry about me. Here," She fished in her pocket for her card. "This is my card with my number; if you ever need me, day or night, just call." Lauren smiled and accepted the card with a quiet 'thank you'. At that moment, Tony appeared and Lauren headed away with the PC. Once Lauren had disappeared out of sight, Harriet headed upstairs to CID in search of Sam. Heading through the double doors, she crashed straight into DS Carter.

"Hey," The man grinned slightly. "I've had nicer greetings."

"I'll bet you have." The uniform Sergeant muttered as she spotted Sam talking to Terry at the other side of the room. Max stared after her as she headed over to the two detectives. "Ma'am, can I have a word?"

Sam glanced up and, upon seeing the look on the taller woman's face, nodded and led the way into the briefing room behind her. "What is it?"

"I've just spoke to Lauren Peters," Harriet paced the room agitatedly while Sam watched on in concern. "I think we were wrong about her rape being just a coincidence."

"All of the other cases had the same MO but Lauren's didn't." Sam pointed out with a raised eyebrow. Something was clearly irritating the brunette and Sam couldn't figure out what it was.

"It can't just be a coincidence that as soon as I brought up giving us a description and going through WAD's that she backed off."

"Did she give you a statement?" Harriet held up the piece of paper and handed it to the detective. "So, we possibly have a fifth rape and no more evidence to work out who the attacker is." Sam frowned before opening the folder in front of her and skimming through the other statements. "Who attended the scene this morning?"

"Callum and Tony." Harriet chewed her lip worriedly. "Tony's dropping Lauren Peters off at her sister's house and I've told him to stay with her."

"I better go and inform the DCI of the latest developments. It's likely he'll want to hold a briefing so go find Callum." Harriet nodded and headed off in search of the man. Finding him in the office, she informed him of what Sam had said and the pair of them returned to the briefing room, squashing in at the back of the already crowded room.

"Listen up, everyone; we have five rape victims who've come forward in the last three months; Bianca Weatherstone, Victoria Marshall, Megan Swift, Molly Lunn and Lauren Peters." The DCI announced as he strode to the front of the room. "All of these women have made statements but have been too scared to do a formal ID or give us a physical description of their attacker."

"Without this you know we pretty much don't have a case." Sam stepped in. "All of these attacks have the same MO except for the attack on Lauren Peters." She gestured for Callum to step forward.

"When me and Tony attended the scene earlier we believed it was a burglary gone wrong but obviously it wasn't." Callum added.

"So, what do we have?" Max asked from his seat at the table beside Jo.

"We have statements from all five women," Sam held up the folder. "There's odd bits about their clothing like 'black jeans' or 'blue hooded top' but we don't know anything else."

"Is it possible Lauren Peters attack was simply a coincidence?"

"It's a possibility but it's unlikely." Harriet replied with a frown. "Whoever this attacker is he's threatened all of these women into not giving a description to us. He's smart in how he's getting away with it."

"How?"

"Well all of these women give statements so it's almost like they haven't been threatened and they want justice but when it comes to giving us a description, they bottle it and he think's we'll dismiss it as normal victim behaviour."

"True." The DCI stepped forward. "We need to work out a way to get these women to open up."

"We could use Harriet."

"You what?"

"Well you have a bond with Lauren Peters, a bit of easy persuasion might convince her to tell us more."

Harriet sighed. "Alright, fine, I'll talk to her but not today." She shook her head at the DCI. "She's shaken up, Guv. She's staying at her sister's tonight, though, so she's bound to tell her about what's happened, maybe her sister will be able to help us persuade her."

"Good idea." Jack nodded. "Speak to her tomorrow morning."

"What about the other victims?" Jo rested her head on her hand.

"Sam's going to speak to Victoria and Megan this afternoon and Molly and Bianca in the morning"

"Can I go with her?"

"Sure." The DCI nodded. "Right; Harriet and Callum, get uniform to do a door-to-door at Lauren's house and pick up the CCTV from the nearest cameras. Max, I want you to find a list of local sex offenders and I want you to speak to them all, bar those already inside. Mickey, Terry, you can help him. The rest of you resume normal duties."

As the officers dispersed to their various jobs, Harriet followed Callum back downstairs. She leant against the door frame and sighed.

"What?" Callum paused in pulling his stab vest on and looked up.

"I get the impression that CID think Lauren's rape was a coincidence."

"And you don't?" Harriet moved so she was sitting in her desk chair.

"I did at first but after I spoke to her, no." Callum moved round the table so he was stood directly in front of the woman. "I'm certain the attackers are the same but there's something more to Lauren's case."

"Go and tell Max or the DI or the DCI, then." Harriet snorted and shook her head. Callum crouched down and frowned. "What?"

"Why the hell would Max listen to anything I've got to say?" She rubbed her face wearily. "I'm a lowly uniform Sergeant compared to him."

"You're the exact same rank," Callum squeezed her leg gently. "And everyone knows that nothing gets done round here unless uniform put the leg work in." Harriet smiled softly and glanced down at the man. Their eyes met briefly and the brunette felt her breath catch in her throat. Quickly, she looked away and returned her attention to the sheets of paper on her desk.

"I'm gonna go through the CCTV when it gets in, see if I can find anything useful."

Callum nodded. "I'm gonna go and help with the door-to-door, keep me updated, yeah?"

Harriet nodded as the man headed away. She swallowed the lump in her throat that had occurred when she'd met Callum's eyes and sighed. Clearly her pain relief was knocking her judgement.


	10. Chapter 10

_**Big thank you's to Serenbex, MelBell, Guest and HMbookqueen for your lovely reviews. Keep 'em comin'! ;)**_

 ** _And to MelBell, I want to say a MASSIVE thank you for your super sweet review! It means so much to read them and see your opinions so it's much appreciated._**

 _ **Oh by the way, HMbookqueen, there will be a slanging match between Max and Harriet but it won't be for quite a while yet. But there's an interesting turn of events for Harriet and Max before that. ;)**_

 _ **Enjoy! :)**_

The CCTV tapes didn't help push the case further on. Harriet had spent the majority of the afternoon watching tape after tape to no avail. She hoped the door-to-door might have brought something to their attention but when Callum returned later that afternoon he revealed that they'd only managed to get a description of the attackers clothing and a height presumption.

"Well we can rule out all the small men of Canley, then," Harriet muttered bitterly when Callum informed her that the attacker was around six foot. "That makes things so much easier."

"Does he pop up on CCTV?"

"Nope. He's good at this, alarmingly. He avoids the cameras like the plague."

"I better go and tell the DCI the good news, I suppose." Callum stood up and headed away towards CID. Harriet closed her eyes and sighed. She was sure they were missing something that, if they took a step back, would be screaming at them in neon lights. Shaking her head, she ejected the CCTV disk from the player and returned it to the plastic case it came in.

"Sarge?" Harriet turned and frowned at Beth who was stood in the doorway. "There's a Caroline Lowery at the front desk. She asked for Sergeant Stone but I can't find him so I figured you'd be the next best thing."

"Hang on, Lowery?" Harriet furrowed her brow. "I know that name… She's Lauren Peters neighbour. What the hell's she doing here?"

Harriet jumped to her feet and rushed towards the front desk. "I dunno, Sarge, but she's pretty shaken up."

"Go find Callum, Beth, he's in CID." As the PC headed away towards the staircase, Harriet pushed through the door to the front desk. "Miss Lowery? Im Sergeant Barclay."

"Oh," The woman's face fell. "I'm here about the guy who attacked Lauren Peters."

"Has something happened, Miss Lowery?" The door behind them swung open and the woman's face lit up.

"Sergeant Stone!"

Harriet raised an eyebrow at the woman as she almost ran over to the man. Suddenly she felt the overwhelming urge to pull her back and put herself between them. Catching Callum's eye, she half smirked at the awkward and confused look on the man's face.

"Let's go into the interview room, Miss Lowery." Callum smiled weakly. As the woman walked in front of them, Harriet forced herself to smile at the man teasingly.

"Looks like you've got yourself an admirer." Harriet nudged him with her elbow.

"You jealous?" Callum grinned at her as the woman took a seat at the table.

"No." Harriet snapped. "Why would I be?" Callum glanced back at her and opened his mouth but Harriet simply pushed past him and took a seat across from the woman already sat at the table.

"The guy who attacked Lauren," Caroline continued before the two officers could say another word. "He came back about fifteen minutes ago."

"To your house?" The redhead nodded. "What happened?"

"I was upstairs dusting the bedroom and there was a knock at the door. I went downstairs and opened it and he just pushed his way in. He grabbed me round the throat and held a knife to my head." She pointed to her temple to show where he'd threatened her. "He said if I told anyone what he looked like he'd kill me."

"Anything else?" Harriet scribbled notes into her notebook quickly.

"He smashed up the vase on the coffee table and the photo of my nieces that I keep on there, too." Caroline sniffed suddenly and burst into tears. "I was really scared."

Callum stood up and moved to sit beside the younger woman, rubbing her back soothingly. Despite what had happened to the woman, Harriet couldn't help herself curling her fist into a ball under the table, especially when she rested her head on Callum's shoulder. As she turned away from the woman, Harriet caught Callum giving her a knowing look.

"Are you willing to give us a description, Miss Lowery?" Harriet put her personal feelings aside and attempted to keep her focus on the case.

Still resting her head on Callum's shoulder, she sniffed and nodded slowly. "He was tall, around six foot, and he had short and spiky black hair and brown eyes."

Harriet nodded along as the woman spoke. "Miss Lowery, is there any reason why the attacker came to your house? How did he know it was you who called it in?"

"I was in the kitchen window when it happened and it looks out across the garden. He must have seen me when he ran out the back." Harriet smiled tightly at the woman and motioned with her head towards the door at Callum, indicating she was going to inform Jack and Sam of the new developments.

Once the brunette had delivered the details to CID, having to leave them with Max as Sam was out with Jo and the DCI was in a meeting, she headed back downstairs and towards the front desk. She stopped as she heard Callum and Caroline talking just behind the door.

"I don't think that other Sergeant likes me very much."

"Sergeant Barclay? Why not?"

"I think she likes you." Harriet narrowed her eyes angrily at the door.

"Sergeant Barclay is a professional, Miss Lowery, she wouldn't make this case personal"

She heard murmurs of conversation before the door opened and Callum appeared. Harriet immediately pretended to be busy reading through her notes. He smirked and shook his head at her.

"You're a terrible actress."

"Shut up" Harriet glared at him before sighing. "I've left the notes with Max and there isn't much else we can do for today."

"What about the description?"

"Until we hear anything, Callum, you know that there's nothing we can do." She sighed. "Im off shift now, anyway, so I'll see you in the morning."

"Actually, Harriet, I was-"The woman turned and looked back at the man as Mickey bounded round the corner and poked her in the ribs. Once he'd continued down the corridor, she turned back to Callum and raised her eyebrow at him questioningly."Doesn't matter. See you in the morning." Harriet frowned but continued towards the locker rooms, her mind running over what the man could have wanted to say. Her mind settled on one thought but she immediately dismissed it as stupid.

X-X

Harriet couldn't sleep that night. She tossed and turned until she had to get out of bed. Opening the bedroom window, she sat herself on the windowsill, relishing the night breeze on her sweaty skin. Her mind wouldn't stop turning over the day's events.

They were slowly gathering more and more evidence in terms of the case and she was certain that with the description they'd been given, they were getting increasingly closer to the attacker. Yet Harriet still felt as though there was something they were missing, however, and she was determined to work it out. The other four rape cases had happened in the park yet Lauren Peters had been raped at her home. In Harriet's opinion, the case was so much more personal to Lauren Peters than it was to any of the other victims. She just didn't know how.

Added to that, her mind kept reverting back to Callum and the comment he'd made – _"You jealous?"_ She was certain that she and Callum were nothing more than friends. Ever since she'd broke down at the hospital and told him everything, the ice had broken between them and most of SunHill had noticed how much more friendly the pair of them were around each other. But whenever she was around Callum, she couldn't help noticing how her stomach flipped and a lump appeared in her throat. She was certain it was just nervousness because the man knew so much about her but she couldn't help feeling like there was something else there.

As if on cue, her phone buzzed and she glanced over at the lit up screen, almost falling off the windowsill as she reached over.

 _'You okay? C'_

' _I can't stop thinking about the case… I think were missing something BIG! H x'_

' _I can see why you'd think that. I've had a funny feeling about it all day. But let's not think about that now. Let's get some rest. Night, Harriet X'_

 _'Night, Callum x'_


	11. Chapter 11

_**Wow! This has been a long time coming and I'm so sorry! I've literally been so busy I've barely had time to breathe.**_

 _ **Anyway, as usual, thank you's to Abi, HMbookqueen, Serenbex, Guest and Guest (2) for those lovely reviews. Much love to you guys!**_

 _ **Also, thank you to Queen of Supernatural Lovers for following and favoriting FS.**_

 _ **Enjoy, sweetie's! ;)**_

When Harriet headed into the station the following morning, she was surprised to be informed that Lauren Peters was already waiting for her. Heading into the soft interview room, she was less surprised to see a woman, who Harriet presumed was her sister, holding her hand tightly. Lauren looked slightly more composed than she had the day before but Harriet knew she was still extremely fragile and would be for a long time.

"Hi, Lauren." Harriet dropped into the seat across from them. "How you feeling today?"

There was a pause before the woman sighed deeply and sat back. "Numb… pathetic."

"None of this is your fault, Lauren, you don't have anything to feel pathetic about. You're being very brave." Her sister squeezed her shoulder. "I guess you've been informed of the latest developments."

"Yeah..." Lauren shuffled awkwardly. "I'm sorry for yesterday, I was so scared and I still am but…"

"But what?"

"Well if another woman can come forward and give a description, then I figured I could do the same." Lauren shivered and Harriet frowned. Lauren Peters backing up Caroline Lowery's description would be incredibly useful but Harriet worried that thinking about her attacker could send Lauren over the edge.

"Are you definitely sure you want to do this?"

"Yes." The blunt response made Harriet hesitate but she went to fetch her notebook from the office nevertheless. Once Lauren had given them the description, the blonde had broken down in tears and Harriet and Lauren's sister, Georgina, had comforted her. Harriet let the two women remain in the station until they felt ready to leave and sent a female PC in to keep an eye on them.

Heading upstairs to CID, she handed the information over to Sam, who informed her that two of the other victims had similarly given them descriptions. The DCI was pleased that they seemed to be making a breakthrough and he praised the two women for their work before he headed away to prepare for the next briefing.

"It seems Caroline Lowery was the breakthrough we needed. I suppose we should really thank Callum and his good looks." Sam said as she perched on the edge of Terry's desk and shared a grin with the male DC. Harriet gritted her teeth at the mention of the flirtatious woman and she balled her hands into fists. The action didn't go amiss with Sam who simply smirked to herself.

"Did we get anything back on the local sex offenders?" Harriet changed the subject and focused her attention on the male DC. As she spoke, Max and Mickey appeared behind her and the DC squeezed her elbow softly.

"Nope." Terry replied with a firm tap of the spacebar. "We got nothing, before or after we were given the descriptions."

"So, he's not done this before," Harriet folded her arms and sighed. "Or at least not been caught before."

"Pretty much."

"Uniform asked around in the local area and nobody saw anyone fitting the description." Mickey supplied as he dropped into a neighbouring chair. "Or if they did, they aren't saying anything."

"CCTV proved pointless, too, Ma'am." Harriet shrugged and leant against the filing cabinet. "He doesn't pop up at all."

Sam paused as the two Sergeants and the two Constables turned to look at her. "I think I'm gonna have to inform the DCI that we've hit another stumbling block."

Harriet frowned as a thought hit her. "You said that all the victims were of a similar age." Sam nodded and furrowed her brow. "How similar?"

"Well Lauren's twenty two and two of the victims are twenty four and the other two are twenty and twenty one."

"Do we have images of any of the victims?" Max flicked through the folder quickly and shook his head at the woman. "Are any of them on the database?"

"Victoria Marshall has form for possession." Mickey added quickly. Terry quickly typed the name into the computer and loaded up the woman's details. As the information loaded, the doors to the office swung open and Callum appeared.

"Victoria Marshall, twenty four, arrested for possession a year ago." The other officers leaned closer to the screen.

"Print me the picture." Harriet ordered firmly. Terry glanced at Sam and Max who shrugged back while Callum and Mickey shared worried glances. Terry clicked print and Harriet collected the sheet of paper before returning to stand with her colleagues. She scrutinised the picture before holding it out for Callum and Sam to look at.

"Look familiar?"

"That looks like… Lauren Peters." Callum stared at the image before holding it up. The three male detectives moved to look closely and the man frowned.

"If you ignore the nose shape, she looks a lot like Lauren." Harriet placed her hands on her hips and fixed her gaze on the DI. "And the other three victims, I'm guessing they look similar."

"Yeah, it differs between the three of them but thinking about it, they do look alarmingly similiar."

"So we've got a rapist who has a type?" Max wandered round the desk and clicked his fingers. "But where do we go from here?" Despite ranking below Sam, Harriet felt the other officers turning to glance in her direction.

"I don't know."

X-X

After the group of officers had dispersed and returned to their duties, Harriet had found herself struggling to keep her mind off the case and focus on the events happening in custody. She was certain Rachel kept wandering in and out to keep an eye on her but she decided to ignore her.

During a particularly quiet moment in custody, she rested her head on the desk and let her mind ponder over the reasoning for the rapes. She was sure there was more to these attacks than just the attacker having a type in women and she also knew that violent aggression was more of a motivation for rape than the sexual desire. Harriet was convinced the attacks were driven from a personal vendetta against one, if not all, of the women. The only things she couldn't work out were why the MO had changed when it came to Lauren Peters and if the case was more personal to Lauren, why did the other women end up in the crossfire?

"Harriet!" The Sergeant jumped as the Inspector shouted her. She almost groaned as the woman walked towards her with her hands on her hips. "If you're feeling unwell, Sergeant, I can send you home."

"No, Ma'am, honestly, I'm fine." Harriet held her hands up in defence. "I was just caught up thinking about something else. It won't happen again."

"Good." The woman replied curtly before turning on her heel and heading away up the corridor.

As soon as the woman had disappeared through the door, Mickey appeared and informed her the DCI was ready for his next briefing. The brunette quickly found someone to cover the custody desk for her before heading towards CID.

"Hey." She whirled around as she felt a hand grab her wrist tightly. Her eyes widened in pain and fear and Callum quickly moved his hand and loosened his grip. His fingers grazed the palm of her hand and the man glanced up, looking intently into her eyes. Harriet shivered as her breath caught in her throat until the man eventually looked away. "Are you okay?"

"What?" Harriet frowned and shook her head. "Of course I am, why wouldn't I be?"

"It's just I think you might be getting in too deep with this case –."

"I'm fine, Callum, I just want to find this guy and make sure he pays for what he's done to these women." Harriet shot an icy glare over her shoulder at him before heading away. Dropping into a seat beside Jo in the briefing room, she attempted to find a distraction to forget about what had just happened. Remembering what Mickey had said about Jo having a date the other night, she nudged the older woman with her elbow and smirked at the confused frown she received in return.

"What?"

"Welsh bird, eh?" Jo rolled her eyes and folded her arms across her chest.

"Her names Sarah and yes, before you ask, we will be seeing each other again." Harriet's mouth dropped open before a smile appeared on her face as the DI and DCI entered the room.

"As you probably know," Jack announced to the room of officers. "Three of our victims have given us descriptions of their attacker as well as Caroline Lowery who was threatened by him yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, however, the two victims that agreed to look through WADS failed to identify him."

"We've checked the sex offenders register and there's no one who fits that description." Sam continued. "Harriet, did you ask Lauren Peters to look through WADS?"

"No, Ma'am." Harriet shook her head softly. "She was too distraught after giving us the description to even register what was happening."

"Is she still in the station?"

"I think so."

"Go and ask her after this. She might have calmed down by now." Harriet nodded. "I hate to have to tell you this but for now we've hit a stumbling block."

"Hang on," Jo sat up and narrowed her eyes at the board of evidence. "Is it possible that the attack on Lauren Peters was personal?"

"The MO is different to all the others." Harriet backed up her friend.

"What are you thinking?"

Jo shrugged and turned to the Sergeant beside her. "I think that Lauren knows her attacker." There was silence in the room before Jack nodded.

"I'll go with it." He smiled grimly at the woman. "Go through WADS with Lauren and then try to get her to open up a bit more about her life. She trusts you so she's most likely to open up to you."

As the officers left the room, Jo nudged her and raised an eyebrow at the woman. "I was thinking," The detective smirked. "Maybe we could double date."

Harriet snorted. "And who would I go with, exactly?"

Jo nodded her head at someone behind Harriet and walked away grinning. Harriet turned to see who it was and swallowed thickly at who her friend had pointed out.

Callum.


	12. Chapter 12

_**Thank you to HMbookqueen, Serenbex and Guest for your lovely reviews!**_

 _ **As 'Guest' has asked about a sequel, I think there's no better time to ask if you guys would like a sequel, although I do understand if you haven't made up your mind yet. Anyway, leave me a little 'Yes' or 'No' in the comments if you have.**_

 _ **Enjoy! ;)**_

"Lauren," Harriet placed the laptop down on the table and smiled at the two women. "I wanted to speak to you about going through WADS to identify your attacker."

"I don't want to see him again, I really don't." The blonde sighed wearily and held her head in her hands.

"I understand that, Lauren, but the description is very vague." The woman's face fell and Harriet immediately cursed herself for her terrible choice of words. "What I mean is that if he's on WADS we'll immediately be able to find him."

Lauren took a deep breath and nodded reluctantly, almost as if she was fighting an internal battle. "Fine."

Chewing her lip, Harriet opened the lid of the laptop and loaded up the first page of images. Lauren slowly took in the faces on the screen before shaking her head, as she did for the second page. As she flicked to the third page, Harriet swore that the woman's eyes had flickered when she looked at the second picture on the screen. Making a mental note to look up the man in the photo later on, she returned her attention to the blonde who was staring at the wall. Harriet took that this meant she didn't recognise anyone and closed the laptop lid quietly.

"Thank you." She clasped her hands together and fixed her gaze on the chair arm, preparing herself for a possible backlash against her probing. "What do you do for a living?"

"I'm an estate agent." She wrapped her cardigan around her tightly.

"Where'd you work?"

"Canley Properties on the high street."

"How long you worked there?"

"Two years." She shrugged. "Why'd you care?"

"I just want to get to know you a little bit better, that's all." Harriet tapped her foot against the table quietly. "You in a relationship?"

The blonde froze and then shook her head, glancing sideways at the Sergeant. "We broke up four months ago." Harriet frowned at the look on the woman's face and narrowed her eyes.

"Any particular reason why?"

The woman swivelled so she was facing her properly and her expression cracked, her face flooding with hope. Harriet instinctively leant forward slightly. "He was possessive… he never let me go out, see my friends and so I… I cheated on him. He found out and we broke up."

Harriet froze at the woman's words. She almost didn't want to believe what she was hearing but yet she was certain, deep down, that Lauren's attacker was her ex-boyfriend. He'd been possessive and controlling and Lauren had cheated on him, meaning he was no longer in control of the situation. During the rape the attacker would have been in control at all times and this violent aggression was an exaggerated show of control.

Returning her focus to the woman beside her, she smiled softly. "What did he do for a living your ex-boyfriend?"

"He was a security guard at the casino just off the High Street." Harriet caught the woman's gaze and Harriet knew that she was pleading with her to put the pieces together. Lauren was too scared to out rightly name who her attacker was but she was dropping enough hints for Harriet to do the rest for her.

The Sergeant nodded at the silent plea, squeezing Lauren's hand tightly, and stood up. "Come on, I'll go find PC Stamp to take you for a coffee in the canteen." Heading out and leaving the woman and her sister with the man, the brunette headed to the office and quickly loaded up the database. Finding the man who she was certain Lauren Peters had recognised, she grabbed his details from the printer and headed up to find Sam. She burst through the doors and almost hurled herself towards the DI and Max who were stood next to the filing cabinet.

"Ma'am," The two detectives frowned at the uniform Sergeant but the brunette ignored their confused looks and thrust the sheet of paper towards the woman. "I think I know who the attacker is; Mason Cotton."

Max and Sam gaped at her for a moment before they both launched into an attack of questions. She told them everything she could before Sam immediately launched into Inspector mode and started handing out orders to various officers to get everything organised for the search at the casino and Mason's home address. Rachel appeared with Callum and a group of uniformed officers to help with the searches but when Harriet asked to be let off station duties and allowed out to help, the Inspector firmly ordered her to return to work on the custody desk. Callum half smirked to himself as he watched her stomp away, swearing furiously under her breath as she went.

Instead of heading back to custody, she made a diversion by the canteen to let Lauren know what was happening and the brunette found herself emerged into a conversation with the woman and her sister. By the time she was making her way back to where she was supposed to be, the searches had been completed and the team were returning with an incensed Mason Cotton in tow.

Harriet bumped into Rachel in the corridor and was angrily informed that disobeying an order wasn't acceptable and as a result she wasn't going to let her in on the interview. The Sergeant had argued fiercely with the woman, stressing how she'd gathered most of the information in the case and deserved the chance to interview the suspect but Rachel had ignored her and firmly told her to get back to where was supposed to be otherwise she'd be sent home. Returning to the desk, she glared angrily at Mason as she booked him in before handing him over to Jack and Sam for questioning. Moving back to the desk to bag up the man's possessions, she smiled weakly at Callum who was leaning against the desk looking unimpressed at the flirting going on between Nate and Beth.

Rolling her eyes at the man, she tutted and dropped the plastic bag into a tray behind her. "What?" Callum asked gruffly, turning to face the brunette.

"You." She shook her head and a strand of hair fell over her face. "Beth and Nate are younger than us, remember? They do flirt with each other." The man made a noise of annoyance in his throat but Harriet ignored him and smiled softly at the two PC's who were heading out again.

"Good day, then?" It was Harriet's turn to make a noise of annoyance and she shook her head. "Rachel's new to the job, _remember_?" He emphasised the word and Harriet poked her tongue out in mild annoyance.

"If your gonna say give her a break then you may as well save your breath, because if one more person defends that woman, I will punch them in the face."

"You wouldn't dare." Callum teased as he raised an eyebrow at her.

"Wanna bet?" She jerked her arm out across the desk and Callum grabbed it tightly, twisting it slightly. She pretended to be hurt and the man let go with a soft laugh. Instinctively, Harriet reached up and ruffled his hair so it was sticking up haphazardly. "Whoops."

Callum gently smacked her hand away and growled in annoyance. Harriet grinned at him and shook her head as she twirled away. Callum caught her eye and narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked almost quizzically at her. She swallowed thickly and felt the familiar flip in the pit of her stomach. "You got plans for the evening?"

"No." Harriet replied quietly. She attempted to drag her gaze away from the man's but found she couldn't quite achieve it. "Why?"

"I wondered if you wanted to grab a drink, that's all."

"Out?"

"That new bar in town, I wondered if you'd like to go. I mean... it has been a stressful couple of days and-." Callum muttered, his cheeks blushing as he spoke.

"I'd love to, Callum." Harriet nodded and smiled weakly. "Meet you there at seven?" Callum nodded and smiled at the woman before turning and heading away up the corridor.

Letting out a breath she didn't even know she'd been holding, Harriet clutched the desk tightly. Callum hadn't even said it or indicated it was anything more than a friendly drink between colleagues but Harriet was almost certain that Callum had asked her out on a date. Or some form of a date, at least


	13. Chapter 13

_**Once again, big thank you's to HMbookqueen, Guest, Serenbex and Guest (2) for your lovely reviews.**_

 ** _Also, thank you for your feedback on the 'sequel' front; I haven't made a decision yet but I haven't ruled it out all together._**

 ** _OH! I'd also like to apologise for how long you guys have had to wait for this update. I've been so busy with college and life in general that I just haven't had time to write or update. However, I did get an A in sociology and a B in History, so the hard work is paying off!_**

 ** _Side note: I'm actually updating this from my phone and it's temperamental so I'm sorry if there are any errors! I've done my best. :)_**

 ** _Anyway, let's get back to Barclay and Stone, shall we? ;)_**

Flying into the bar at twenty past seven, the brunette almost sent a young woman clutching a tray of drinks flying across the room in her hurry to get inside. Calling her apologies to the disgruntled looking woman, she smoothed down her hair and popped a mint into her mouth to freshen her breath. Glancing up, she spotted Callum watching her from across the room, a half smirk adorning his face. Harriet shook her head and headed towards the table where he was sat.

"Sorry about that… Traffic was a bleedin' nightmare." Harriet dropped into the seat across from him and placed her bag on the table.

"No worries. I'll just go and get the drinks in." Standing up, he headed away towards the bar and it was only when Harriet heard him placing their order that she realised he already knew what she drank.

Smiling to herself softly, she let herself relax, the first time she had in a good few days. The case had been draining but she was proud of the result and she knew that now Mason was locked away, his victims could sleep a little easier. As Callum returned with the drinks, he smiled at the brunette who looked a million miles away, lost in her own thoughts. Nudging her with his foot under the table, she blinked and smiled as she returned her gaze to the man and took a long awaited gulp of her drink.

"That was well overdue." She muttered with a sigh of relief.

"You can say that again."

Callum rested his head on his hand and peered at the woman carefully. "When we spoke in the hospital…" Harriet held her hand up to stop the man.

"Don't, Callum, I don't want to talk about it." Harriet sighed at the mention of the one thing she hadn't wanted to think about. "Look, I don't normally go about telling people my business because generally people can't be trusted."

"Hey!" The man frowned at the woman's words. "You can trust me. Your life is your life and I'm honoured you trust me enough to open up so isn't up to me to spread it round like aimless gossip."

"Thank you."

Callum shuffled awkwardly. "Listen, Harriet, I didn't invite you here as fr-."

"OI!" Callum paused as there was a loud shout from behind them. Harriet turned and instinctively groaned at the sight of their friends making their way over to their table. The brunette's heart sunk further as she noticed the state her friends were already in.

"Is this a private party or can anyone join in?" Smithy slurred at the woman with a smirk. Harriet glared at him and shook her head.

Callum similarly looked unimpressed at the arrival of their colleagues and so the woman shuffled round so she was sat next to him, with the others dropping into the remaining seats. Smithy headed away to the bar and Harriet turned her attention to the small blonde beside Jo.

"Who are you?" Harriet asked bluntly. The woman blinked, through either the bluntness of Harriet's tone or the haze of alcohol Harriet was certain she was under. "Sorry, it's just…"

"This is Sarah." Jo said with a small smile as Smithy returned with their drinks. A smirk immediately spread over Harriet's face at the mention of the name and Jo rolled her eyes at the woman's reaction. "We've been seeing each other."

"I can see that." Harriet muttered as she watched Jo interlink her fingers with the younger woman's and smile tenderly at her.

"This is boring!" Stevie announced suddenly. Harriet had barely even noticed her friend downing her drink beside her and she felt a little bit guilty. "Me and Smithy could be getting down and dirty by now." Harriet and Callum snorted on their drinks and Jo, Mickey and Sarah erupted into laughter while Smithy turned red at the woman's words.

"Ste!" He cried as the group attempted to recompose themselves. "I thought we were gonna keep quiet?"

"Wait… are you two seeing each other?" Callum asked in puzzlement.

"Yeah." Stevie attempted to narrow her eyes at the taller man but simply went cross eyed instead. "Didn't you know?"

Callum shrugged and conceded most people knew they'd end up together at some point. He grinned at Harriet who was watching the group in amusement. She felt his gaze on her and smiled back softly, her stomach doing the familiar flip that it seemed to do whenever she was near Callum.

"We can all go back to mine?"

"Or we could all go clubbing!" Stevie's eyes lit up and she almost jumped up and down excitably.

"The club sounds good." Sarah replied with a grin. Not having any other plan for the night and with their night well and truly gate-crashed, Harriet and Callum agreed to tag along.

They made their way towards the club and moved to the back of the queue. Sarah, however, headed straight up to the bouncer, motioning for her friends to follow. Jo grinned smugly at the group as Sarah stood on her tiptoes and muttered something in the man's ear. The blonde kissed his cheek quickly and the bouncer wrapped his arms around the woman, his hands sliding down her back and resting on her bum. The smug smile dropped from Jo's face and she glared at the man fiercely as she pulled the younger woman back, wrapping her arm around her tightly.

"Fucking perv." Sarah muttered to her girlfriend once they were heading down the stairs into the club, the smile vanishing almost immediately after they were out of view of the man. Jo chuckled at the blonde's words and shook her head, pushing open the door and heading straight to the bar.

Stevie grabbed Smithy and Harriet by the hand and pulled them in the direction of the dancefloor. The brunette immediately found herself being spun and jerked from side-to-side by Stevie, both her and Smithy apologising to the people around them as they crashed into them roughly.

Suddenly, without warning, Stevie let go of Harriet's hand and pushed her backwards before twirling away with Smithy. Harriet stumbled in her heels before a pair of strong arms caught her and pushed her upright carefully. She turned and immediately found herself almost nose-to-nose with Callum. Her breath caught in her throat and she swallowed thickly; Callum's hands were still loosely placed on the tops of her arms and, with a deep breath, she took a step towards him.

"I ain't being rude or nothing, but you have the most ghetto booty." Harriet's mouth dropped open at the words and she spun round quickly, her gaze settling on a man behind her. The brunette's eyes widened as she took in his appearance; he was taller than Smithy and Callum and was covered from head-to-toe in garish jewellery. "Can I touch it?" Before the woman could reply, he'd bent down and squeezed her bum roughly.

Harriet suddenly felt Jo grabbing her hand and pulling her towards her as she was pushed from behind and almost crushed between Callum and the man. She stared speechlessly in horror as Callum aimed a punch towards his jaw, only being stopped when Smithy hauled him backwards. As Mickey and Smithy attempted to break up the fight, Stevie and Jo comforted the horrified Sergeant while Sarah attempted to smooth things over with the bouncer.

"Come on, babe." Stevie said as Jo rubbed her back soothingly. Tears sprang to Harriet's eyes and she glared at Callum who was attempting to push past Mickey and get to the woman. As they neared the exit to the club, Harriet felt herself being grabbed by the bouncer and almost thrown out of the door.

Growling angrily as Stevie was thrown towards her and only prevented from landing face first on the floor thanks to Harriet catching her, she stomped up to the burly man and jabbed a finger angrily in his face. "OI! Do you have no manners?" She hissed.

"Your boyfriend started a fight." He replied bluntly. "So your getting chucked out; deal with it."

"He felt my arse, Callum was just defending me!" Harriet cried indignantly as Smithy, Mickey and Callum were hauled from the club one-by-one followed by Jo and Sarah. As Sarah pushed past the woman and started shouting at the bouncer angrily, Harriet moved and leant against the wall wearily. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, only just realising she hadn't bothered to correct the bouncer when he'd referred to Callum as her boyfriend. It had felt normal.

"Harriet, I –."

"Forget it, Callum." Harriet snapped as the man appeared beside her. She turned and stomped away up the road.

"I was defending you." He shouted after her. "What was I supposed to do?"

"Tell him to back off, move away, anything but try and deck the bloke." Callum made a sound of annoyance and glared at the woman.

"Most girls would have loved a bloke jumping to their defence like that."

"I'm not most girls, Callum, I don't need a man to fight my battles for me." She stepped towards him, her eyes flashing angrily. He glared back indignantly. "I'm not a damsel in distress that you can run and rescue."

"Oh really? You completely froze in there, what would you have done if he'd have took it further?"

Harriet's eyes widened angrily and, with all the strength she could muster, she attempted to push him backwards. Callum grabbed her arms before she could and they glared at each other breathlessly. Without warning, she lunged towards him and crushed their lips together, kissing him roughly. As Harriet realised what she was doing and pulled away, Callum grabbed her and pulled her back towards him, kissing her passionately. He tangled his hands in her hair and pressed her against the wall.

"Feel better?" He asked with the ghost of a smirk on his face as he pulled away for air.

"Lots." She replied breathlessly, her eyes twinkling mischievously.

 ** _By the way, the whole 'Ghetto booty' situation is actually a true story so I meant no offence in anyway, shape or form._**


	14. Chapter 14

**_BIG thank you's to HMbookqueen, Serenbex, Guest, Guest (2), Guest (3), Guest (4) and Guest (5) for your lovely reviews. Also, big thank you's to Myshadowiscrimson and fangirlinthefrock for following/favoriting._**

 ** _Now, I owe you all a MASSIVE apology for the lack of updates recently but I have been SUPER busy and, I'm afraid to say, that's not about to change anytime soon (I was ill last week, I'm off on holiday this week, then I'm back at college and I'm going to a concert a week on Wednesday) so I haven't had time to write. Also, the next time I'm off from college will be Christmas/New Year which will be crazy busy but, luckily, I have an extra week off as our college is been rebuilt for January so hopefully I'll be able to squeeze a little bit of writing time in then._**

 ** _Also, I've recently had writer's block with this story. I know where I want it to end up, it's just getting it there that's the problem._**

 ** _Anyway, enjoy this chapter! :)_**

Harriet opened her eyes slowly, attempting to ignore the pounding in her head. Rolling over, she jumped at the feeling of the cold bed sheets and returned to her previous position. She stretched and hit her arm on the bedside table, knocking her phone onto the floor with a thud. Groaning, she leant over the side of the bed and picked up the device. She frowned as she read the words on the screen; twenty missed calls from Stevie, twenty three from Jo, fourteen from Mickey and nine from Smithy. Checking her texts, she realised she had over twenty texts, including one from Callum.

Suddenly, she remembered what had happened last night and she glanced at the space beside her, wondering why Callum had left so early; it had only just gone half nine. Hoping and praying that he wasn't regretting what had happened between them, she opened the text, relief flooding though her at the words on the screen.

 _'Sorry I had to leave so soon, I was on shift at nine but I finish at seven. Shall I come round to yours, grab a takeaway? C x'_

 _'No worries! Sounds good, I'll see you later. H x'_

Satisfied with her reply to Callum, she turned her attention to the missed calls and texts from her friends. Holding down the 'S' key on her phone, she let the call dial through to her friend.

"Ugh, this better be important, Barclay." Stevie grumbled down the phone at her friend. "I'm nursing the worst hangover ever and Smithy isn't even here to have hangover sex with me and make me feel better."

"First of all, that's gross and so not what I want to think about at this time in the morning and second of all, I want to know why I have so many texts and missed calls from you, Smithy, Jo and Mickey."

"You disappeared. One minute you were storming up the road shouting at Callum and the next minute you'd… Hang on, you went home together, didn't you?" Harriet stayed silent and chewed her lip, a smile creeping across her face. Stevie took her silence as confirmation. "Oh my God! You shagged Stone."

"Stevie!" Harriet cried as she burst out laughing at her friend.

"Oh Mickey and Jo are gonna love this." Stevie laughed hysterically down the line.

"You can't tell them!" Harriet buried her face in the duvet, thinking about the ribbing she was going to get when her friends found out.

"Don't worry, babe, Callum Stone is a definite notch on the bedpost." Stevie was still laughing hysterically at her friends news. "A hot one at that."

"As hot as Smithy?" Harriet replied with a smirk.

"No one's as hot as my Smithy." There was suddenly a shuffling sound before Stevie started laughing again. "I've just text Smithy to tell him the news."

"Oh, Stevie." Harriet groaned. She knew Smithy was bound to tell Jo and Mickey and she was certain they'd be winding Callum up.

"Sorry, babe, but it was too good an opportunity to pass up." Harriet sighed and rubbed her face. "I'll text you later, I'm off back to bed." As she ended the call, Harriet climbed out of bed and headed to the kitchen.

She peered out of the window and let the smile that had been twitching at her lips spread over her face. For the first time in what felt like a long time, she felt happy, really happy. Shaking her head in amusement at her own giddiness, she leaned over and flicked the switch for the kettle.

X-X

Swilling the wine around in her glass, Harriet tapped her foot nervously as she heard the doorbell ring. With a deep breath, she headed towards the door, feeling her stomach flip at the sight of Callum's silhouette though the frosted glass.

"Evening." The man replied with a small smile as she opened the door.

"Alright?" He chuckled at her brusque reply and shrugged his jacket off. "Good day?"

"The usual; a few arrests, a load of paperwork and someone's dog doing a runner." Harriet laughed as she grabbed a can of beer from the fridge and handed it over.

"You were on pooch patrol, then?"

"Sadly, yes." He shook his head and took a large gulp from the can in his hand. "How about you?"

"Chores and an embarrassing phone conversation with Stevie."

"That would probably explain why Smithy and Jo kept making sexual jokes about me and you, then." Harriet snorted and covered her mouth with the tea towel.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't tell her." Harriet held her hands up. "I had loads of missed calls and texts from them and so I called her to find out why and she said it was because I'd disappeared and then she guessed we'd gone home together."

Callum shook his head in amusement and smiled. "You hungry?" Harriet opened the cupboard and reached up for the takeaway menus. Handing the small pile to the man, she leant against the counter top and took a large gulp of her wine. It felt like her and Callum had been together for months and yet, they weren't even a proper couple. Not officially. "Chinese alright?"

Harriet jumped and nodded. "Sure." Once they'd ordered, the pair of them moved to the sofa in the living room. Harriet switched on some music in the background and settled herself on the sofa.

"This is a really nice place." Callum glanced round the living room at the décor and smiled softly at the brunette. The flat was decorated in a warm cream for a base colour with different colours added in each of the rooms. "You've done it up really nice."

"You never mentioned it before."

"Well the last time I was here I was bit more interested in the owner than the flat." Harriet blushed and used her hair as a shield to stop Callum seeing her embarrassment. Callum leaned forward and moved her hair back from her face. He grinned at her and his eyes flickered towards her lips involuntarily. "Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that."

Harriet swallowed and her heart plummeted at the man's words as she anticipated what he was going to say. "What about it?"

"Last night was… Last night was fantastic but…" Harriet sat up at the man's words. Her eyes filled with tears and she blinked in an attempt to get rid of them. If Callum was going to tell her it was a onetime thing she didn't understand why he'd come round tonight. Unless he wanted to let her down gently.

"You don't have to say it, I understand perfectly."

"Understand what?"

"You want this to be a onetime thing. I get it."

Callum frowned. "What? No… I was actually going to say that… That I… I like you… Alot." Harriet's mouth dropped open and she stared at him in bewilderment. "And I was also going to say that I _didn't_ want this to be a onetime thing, but if that's what you want..."

"No! No I…" Harriet sighed. She'd misread the signals and Callum now thought she didn't like him. "I really don't want this to be a onetime thing, I… I like you, for some strange and absolutely stupid reason."

Callum grinned. "Stupid?"

"Yes it's so stupid because you are the most arrogant, closed off and difficult human being I have _ever_ met, okay?"

"And you are the most sarcastic, petulant and defiant human I've ever met." Harriet scowled at his words and opened her mouth to argue. "See, defiant!" She couldn't help the grin that spread across her face and she sighed loudly.

"So if I'm all those things then why do you have feelings for me?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"I'm asking you."

"Maybe because you never give up on something you care about and because you never made things easy for me. You're tough and fierce and I like that you're strong and don't take shit from anyone." Harriet stayed silent and let the words wash over her. "Your turn."

"Honestly? I don't know why I like you… I just… Do. The way you make me feel is crazy and it scares me to death but…" Before Harriet could finish explaining, Callum had lurched forward and kissed her roughly. "Callum…"

The man took her hand in his and squeezed it softly. "But what?" The brunette chewed her lip and sighed wearily, turning to glance out of the window.

"This… Callum… Look… I'm not good with feelings or relationships." Harriet shook her head. "We work together, we share a similar group of friends, I've dated a colleague before and it's severely frowned upon so this is really complicated."

"Have you come up with enough excuses yet?"

"No."

"Harriet, if you aren't ready to go public with this then we'll keep it a secret."

"Keep what a secret?" Harriet smirked coyly and Callum sighed, realising the woman had pushed him into a corner.

"This, us."

"Were a couple? Were an 'us'?"

"If you want us to be."

Harriet paused and mulled over all the reasons why she should say no, why she should push him away but, instead, she kissed him softly. As she deepened the kiss, she hoped beyond hope that she hadn't made the wrong decision.


	15. Chapter 15

**_WOW! You guys have absolutely no idea how sorry I am that you've had to wait this long for an update. Sadly, the updates aren't about to become more regular because I'm currently juggling College and work and, surprisingly, my social life is pretty busy right now, so I apologise._**

 ** _In addition, I'm also suffering from writers block and I'm at the point with this story where I'm so close to finishing and I know where it's going but I'm really struggling to get it there. So, in an attempt to beat the writers block, I was wondering if you lovely readers had any prompts for one shot's that I could write. I've got four TV shows I'm willing to have a go at - The Bill, Hollyoaks, Eastenders and Glee. I'll also have a go at any Fast & Furious one-shot's, too. I want to make more time for writing again so I'm hoping getting my inspiration back will spur me on. :)_**

 ** _Anyway, as usual, BIG, BIG, BIG thank you's to HMbookqueen, Abi, Guest, Guest (2), Serenbex, Guest (3) and Guest (4). Also, big thank you to AbbieAllenUK for following FS._**

 ** _I'm so incredibly grateful for your support and it makes me so happy when you review/favourite/follow. Thank you, lovelies._**

 ** _Enjoy! ;)_**

"So has anything else happened between you and Stone?" Mickey asked with a grin as he and Harriet headed up the ramp into the station on Monday morning.

"No." Harriet lied as she pushed through the door to the station and headed towards the changing rooms. "Have you actually found a girlfriend yet?" Mickey glared at the woman before turning and heading away towards CID, leaving Harriet smirking after him. Mickey's love life, or lack thereof, regularly found itself as the topic of conversation between their friends and it drove the detective mad.

"Morning." Harriet grinned at the officer in front of her. Glancing round quickly, she leant up and kissed the man softly. "Or should I say good morning."

Harriet laughed and shook her head fondly. "Oh I'd definitely say it was a good morning."

As the Inspector appeared at the top of the corridor, narrowing her eyes at the closeness of two of her Sergeants, Callum winked at the woman before heading away to see what Rachel wanted. Opening the door to the female changing rooms, Harriet grinned at Mel as she quickly changed into her uniform. The two officers chatted as they made their way towards the briefing before Mel took her seat with the PC's and Harriet joined Callum beside the wall.

Tuning out of what the woman was saying, Harriet focused on keeping a smile off her face and remaining impassive, a task which she found difficult with Callum aiming sneaky glances at her throughout the briefing. As the Inspector addressed her, she turned her attention back towards the woman. "Sergeant Barclay and PC Taylor, I want you out on patrol in Dorrel Park." Harriet grinned at the PC who grinned back shyly. Harriet found Leon's shyness endearing and she knew it was useful when dealing with distressed females. "Alright, off you go."

Grinning at Callum as he headed away towards custody and Harriet caught up with Leon at the door, she pulled her stab vest round her and chatted to the man happily as they made their way towards the yard. Poking Mel in the ribs as she passed and swatting at Nate's hands as he attempted to tickle her from behind, she laughed and climbed into the area car beside Leon, heading away towards the park.

Pulling up in the car park, the two officers climbed out and headed towards the large wrought iron gates at the entrance to the park. They bought coffee's from the van parked just beside the gates and began their steady walk towards the opposite side. Watching as the young children played contentedly while their parents watched on, the brunette smiled softly and took a gulp of her coffee.

"What's got you in such a good mood, Sarge?" Leon asked from beside her. Harriet shrugged and shook her head at the man. "Memories of your wild night out at the disco on Saturday night, maybe?"

Harriet snorted and clamped a hand over her mouth to stop herself spraying coffee all over the floor. "Disco? How old are you; five? And anyway, when has a disco ever been 'wild'?" The PC pouted at the woman's words and pressed his hand over his heart in mock-offense at the woman's teasing. "Nah, I'm just feeling a bit more positive, that's all."

"Is a man responsible for this new found positivity?"

"Shut up, Leon, I like you. Don't make me change my mind." The PC laughed softly as they continued towards the opposite side of the park.

"It is a man, then?" Leon asked quietly as they reached the gates at the far end of the path. He held his hands up in defence and Harriet raised an eyebrow at the man as her radio burst into life.

"All units from Sierra Oscar; missing golden Labrador Retriever in Dorrel Park. Owner is a Mr Tim Wright, dog last seen on the Far East of the park at the entrance to the woodland." Harriet groaned and leant against the railings; as her and Leon were already in Dorrel Park she knew they had no choice but to take the shout. Leon bit back the laugh threatening to escape from his mouth at the sight of his Sergeant slumped against the railings and motioned to his radio.

"I'll radio that were taking the shout." Harriet sighed wearily and stood up, glancing round to where the woodland was. "Sierra Oscar from 437, show me and 82 dealing."

"Okay, so if the dog was last seen at the far side of the park, it's likely that it'll be heading towards us at the opposite side." Leon nodded and glanced around. "So we'll make our way towards the East side of the park through the woodland and hopefully we'll find pooch." Leon grinned at her term of phrase and followed the woman across the grass and towards where the wooded area began. Kicking up a pile of leaves as they walked, Harriet sighed and glanced around a large tree to the left of her.

"Not a dog fan, then, Sarge?"

"It's not that," Harriet replied as she tripped over a tree root that was partially raised up from the ground. She scowled at it as if it had personally offended her and Leon chuckled. "I just don't see why we have to run around finding someone's dog for them. It's hardly a life or death situation, is it?"

"Well apparently the Super wants us to focus our attentions on community policing or something or other."

Harriet snorted and shook her head at the man's words. "I'll bet he does, but it ain't him whose out doing the leg work."

"Not Heaton's biggest fan, then?" Leon raised an eyebrow at the woman curiously.

"He's in too deep with top brass for my liking." Harriet reached the top of a grass banking leading down towards a small river and folded her arms.

She moved so she was leant against a particularly large tree and glanced around. Harriet froze as she heard a sound from behind the tree and she spun round quickly. Stepping backwards, the woman felt her foot hit something solid and tumbled backwards, falling over the form on the floor beside the tree and rolling to the bottom of the grassy banking.

"Oomph." Harriet winced and pushed herself up onto her elbows as Leon appeared beside her to help her up.

"You alright, Sarge? What happened?"

"I don't know, I just fell over a –." The two officers mouths fell open as they glanced towards the tree and realised what the woman had tripped over; a body. Climbing to her feet, Harriet crept over to the male body that was laid at the root of the tree. The brunette leaned over the man to check if he was breathing and she breathed out in relief as she felt a faint pulse. "He's alive, just."

As Leon grabbed his radio to let their colleagues know of the development, Harriet began rifling through the man's pockets in an attempt to find a name for him. Pulling his wallet out of the pocket of his jeans, she snapped it open and pulled out the first card she saw.

"Mark Twinning-Lee." Harriet said aloud as she handed the wallet to the PC and continued rifling through his pockets; pulling out a half packet of chewing gum, a mobile phone and an empty carrier bag. Frowning at the assortment of items, she stood up and wandered back down the banking towards Leon.

"What's in that?" The PC nodded his head at the plastic bag.

"Nothing." She handed over the items and moved back towards the man laid on the floor. "The thing is, I can't see any gunshot or stab wounds and he's not got any bruising or swelling to signify he's been beaten in anyway." Harriet chewed her lip and then, slowly, she lifted the man's head from the ground. Nodding, she took in the blood stain running down the back of the man's head and pulled her tie from beneath her stab vest, pressing it against the wound. "You better radio for an ambulance, love. Who's on their way from CID?"

"Kezia and DI Manson." Leon turned away to follow the request for an ambulance as more uniformed officers appeared, closely followed by the two detectives. Harriet gave Neil a rundown of what had happened before instructing the PC's who were milling around to go see if anyone had seen or heard anything and sending Leon to collect the CCTV.

Spotting Neil talking hurriedly into his mobile, Harriet frowned and crouched down beside Kezia who had taken over pressing the tie against the head wound.

"What's wrong with Manson?"

"Oh something to do with this big case he's been working on. One minute he's getting a breakthrough and jumping up and down like a kid in a sweet shop and the rest of the time he's barking orders at everyone because the progress has slowed down. When I walked in this morning he was having a go at Jo and Stuart about something." Harriet rolled her eyes and leant backwards, narrowing her eyes at Leon who was heading towards her clutching multiple discs. She stood up and muttered to Kezia that she was going back to the station to check the CCTV before heading back to the area car with Leon.

Entering the computer room, the two uniformed officers set about watching the CCTV carefully. As she changed the third disc for the next one in the pile, she sighed; they hadn't found anything useful yet and they only had two discs left to watch.

"Go for refs, Leon, I'll see to this." The PC smiled gratefully before heading away to the canteen. Harriet returned her gaze to the footage and, after checking no one else was in the room, she leant her head back and closed her eyes, exhaustion catching up with her.

Jumping as she felt a hand on her shoulder, she whirled around and smiled at Callum in relief. "You're supposed to actually watch the CCTV, ya know?"

"You're supposed to be on custody but you ain't."

"I'm on a break." Callum held his hands up in defence. "And anyway, I can't stay away when you look so hot in that uniform." Harriet smirked and traced her finger along his lips softly. Callum's eyes glinted mischievously and Harriet laughed, throwing her head back and biting her lip at him.

"You, boy, are so predictable."

"Don't be so flamin' hot, then."

"I'm sorry but there ain't much I can do about my appearance, babe." Callum sighed loudly and the brunette leant forward and kissed him fiercely. Callum ran his hands up and down his girlfriend's sides before reaching up and running his hand over her hair, pulling it out of its neat ponytail. "Oi!"

Callum grinned and flicked the hairband at her, standing up. "I'll see you later, sweetheart, I've got work to do." Grinning after him as she watched him heading away, the brunette shook her head fondly.

Turning back to the screen in front of her, Harriet pulled her hair back up into its previous position and watched the footage carefully, her mouth dropping open at the scene on the screen.


	16. Chapter 16

**_I AM SO SORRY!_**

 ** _I know I've been absent for quite a while but, sadly for me and you, life has just got hectic. Anyway, I've managed to find some time to dedicate to writing again and while I can't gurantee it'll be like this for long, I can try and write as much as possible now._**

 ** _Not forgetting, my thank you's (as usual) to - Guest, Serenbex, Guest (2), Guest (3) and HMbookqueen for your wonderful reviews._**

 _ **Also, big thank you's to rabbitkirsty for following and favoriting, xxkimbobxx for following and favoriting, christinaemarald for favouriting, xxLanaBananaxx for following and wildcat717 for following and favoriting.**_

 _ **Happy reading! :)**_

"You're sure it was him?"

"Of course I am, Callum!" Harriet snapped as she leant against the custody desk and folded her arms. "It was the manager of Boost nightclub; the one who got battered during the attempted armed robbery. It was the first case I worked on here."

"I remember." Callum poked her in the shoulder gently. "What I don't understand is why is a decent bloke like Andrew Greaves dragging an unconscious man into the woods?"

"I don't know, do I look like Mystic Meg?"

Callum chuckled and shook his head fondly. "Where's Leon?"

"I sent him for refs." Harriet stood up and headed away towards the doors at the end of the corridor. "I'm gonna get down to the club and see if he's there."

Heading into the canteen and informing Leon of the latest developments, they climbed into the area car and drove back to the nightclub where the woman had spent her first day at SunHill. Harriet frowned as Leon shot her surreptitious glances but didn't comment, instead focusing on not going over the speed limit in her impatience to get to the club. Heading inside, the woman instructed Leon to take a look around while she spoke to the barman.

"Sergeant Barclay, SunHill; can I have a word?" The barman nodded wordlessly. "Has your manager been in today at all?" The man shook his head. "When did you last see him?"

"Yesterday just as he was leaving."

"When was this?"

"Just after midnight. It's the time he leaves everyday."

"Did he seem on edge at all? Or like something was on his mind?" Harriet narrowed her eyes at the man in an attempt to decipher if he was telling the truth or not.

"He seemed a bit stressed but that's probably because profits have been down since the robbery." The man shrugged and picked up one of the glasses. "Drink?"

"No, thanks." Harriet smiled tightly at the man. "What time did you arrive this morning?"

"Just after quarter to eleven."

"Do you know what time Mr Greaves normally arrives for?"

"Between nine and half past. Sometimes just before."

"Thank you, that's all for now" Harriet glanced around and frowned as she spotted a woman crying in one of the booths across the room from her. "We'll need to take a look at your CCTV, if that's okay." The barman opened his mouth to argue but, as he saw the look on the woman's face, he decided against it and moved away with Leon.

Harriet moved across the room quietly and strained her ears to hear the quiet conversation going on between the two women sat in the booth. "I don't know… I didn't think he'd tell her… I didn't mean… Hurt her."

Harriet frowned at the end of the sentence and stepped forward so both women could see her clearly. "Marie and Leonie, right?"

Both women jumped in shock at the disturbance to their conversation and Harriet fixed them with a steely gaze. "Sergeant… Barker, is it?"

"Barclay." Harriet corrected Marie and turned to Leonie. "You alright?"

Leonie nodded slowly and rubbed at her cheeks furiously, avoiding the woman's gaze. "She's fine, just a bit over emotional."

"I can see that but I don't think she's fine."

"Well I've said she is so just do one, yeah." Harriet glared at Marie as the woman shot her a dirty look.

"Have you seen Mr Greaves today?" At the mention of the man's name, both women froze and shot alarmed glances at each other. Harriet raised an eyebrow and looked at them expectantly.

"No. Why would we?"

"He's your boss; I see my boss when I'm at work."

"Oh," Marie shrugged and gestured to the bar behind her. "Well it's just been me, Leonie and Matt this morning. Andrew hasn't been in yet."

"Alright, thanks." Harriet shot Leonie a brief smile before joining Leon in the doorway. "Let's go and see if Andrew's at home."

"I've just got an address for him; 17 Tillson Avenue." Harriet smirked at the PC and aimed the fob at the area car to unlock it.

"You're organised." Leon grinned and climbed in beside the woman. As they pulled into Tillson Avenue, Harriet pointed at a black Ford Focus parked on the drive of one of the houses. "Andrew Greaves car."

Pulling the car to a stop and climbing out, the two officers made their way up the driveway of the detached house and pressed on the doorbell until a figure appeared behind the glass. As the door opened to reveal a middle aged woman, Harriet and Leon frowned before they realised that this must be Andrew Greaves wife.

"Mrs Greaves? Sergeant Barclay, PC Taylor, SunHill; can we come in?" The woman nodded and led the way into an open plan kitchen. Harriet didn't miss the tear stained cheeks and puffy eyes that displayed the tell-tale signs that she'd been crying.

"Call me Beverly." The woman said quietly. She pointed to the kettle and both officers nodded their confirmation.

"Beverly, we were wondering if we could speak to you about your husband." The older woman tensed at the mention of her husband and she turned, slowly, to face the two officers. "Or if you knew where he was?"

"What about him?" Harriet didn't miss the cold and harsh tone she used to talk about her husband. "And no, I don't know where he is. Work, I presume."

"I'm sorry to tell you this, Beverly, but we've got your husband on CCTV disposing of a body in the woodland of Dorrel Park. The man's body was found by officers this morning."

Beverly's mouth dropped open and she gaped at the woman incredulously. "Body? Is he dead? Who was it?"

"Well he's critical so he's not out of the woods but were hoping he was found in time to be saved." Harriet accepted the mug from the woman's shaking hand. "His name's Mark Twinning-Lee."

The woman stumbled backwards and clutched at the counter top behind her to steady herself. Leon reached forward to help her and slowly guided her towards the dining table. "Mark?"

"Has something happened, Beverly?"

The woman chewed her lip before sighing heavily. "You're going to find out eventually, aren't you?"

"Almost definitely."

"This morning I was in the kitchen with Andrew when there was a banging on the door. I went to see who it was and it was Mark." The woman clasped her hands together quietly. "He was with Leonie, you know, the cleaner. She was crying and he was shouting and screaming. He stormed past me and went straight into the kitchen and when I got in here he was pushing Andrew against the wall and calling him all the names under the sun. It turned out Andrew and Leonie had been… they'd been… Having an affair." The woman spat out the word and burst into a fresh wave of tears.

"Are Leonie and Mark a couple?"

"They were."

What happened between you and Andrew?"

"After Mark and Leonie had gone, we argued for a bit before I forced him out of the house." The woman shook violently and Harriet rubbed her back soothingly. "I didn't want to look at him, I was just so… Disgusted. We've built a life together; twenty five years of marriage, three kids and he threw that away for some bit of skirt."

"Do you know where Andrew went, Beverly?"

"The club, probably." Harriet glanced at Leon and the man nodded, confirming that Andrew Greaves had been on the club CCTV that morning.

"What time was this?"

"Quarter to nine."

"Okay." Harriet smiled weakly at the woman and stood up, placing her hand on her shoulder. "Thank you, Beverly, you've been a massive help. We'll see ourselves out."

Letting out a heavy breath, the woman headed back to the car in silence. Once she was settled in the driver's seat, she leant her head back against the headrest and rubbed her face roughly. "That explains why Leonie Bailey was in tears earlier and I'm guessing she told Marie."

"Andrew Greaves got to the club at five to nine." Leon ran his hand through his hair wearily. "Mark turned up just after and they both went into the office. They came out not long after and they seemed to be having an argument." Harriet nodded. "Mark starts punching Andrew in the stomach and the face so Andrew picks up an ashtray and hits him over the head with it. Mark's knocked out straight away."

"An ashtray?"

"I presume it'd been brought in for cleaning." Leon shrugged. Harriet thought for a moment before smiling weakly at the man and reaching for her radio, raising it to her mouth.

"Sierra Oscar from 82; do we have an update on Mark Twinning-Lee's condition?"

"82 from Sierra Oscar; he's still unconscious, Sarge."

"Can you let me know if his condition changes?" Harriet paused, waiting for the response from the radio operator.

"Sarge."

Harriet turned to Leon, her eyes glinting dangerously. Leon almost smiled at the look on the woman's face; he had a lot of respect for the woman and knew she was more than a match for Smithy, Callum, Max and Stuart. He knew when she had this look on her face, she was determined to get a result and, more often than not, she got it.

"We've got to find Andrew Greaves before he does a runner because he clearly thinks Mark's dead and that's why he dumped his body, so he's almost definitely gonna be legging it, especially as he has no home to go back to." Harriet turned, before the PC could reply, and floored the accelerator, shooting off down the street and rounded the corner at an alarming speed.


	17. Chapter 17

_**I'M SO SORRY!**_

 _ **I have no excuses for being so terrible at updating except for that life has simply got in the way. So, apologies!**_

 _ **Thank you's to Guest, FanWriter2011, LizzieB, HMbookqueen and Serenbex for your lovely reviews!**_

 _ **Also, thank you to Serenbex, MissShellyBabes and FanWriter2011 for following/favoriting FS.**_ __

Upon her return to the station, Harriet was left confused when Kezia placed her hands on the woman's shoulders and steered her back down the ramp. Climbing back into the area car, with Kezia in the passenger seat and Leon in the back, Harriet held her hands out for an explanation from the detective.

"Andrew Greaves has used his credit card to book a train ticket to Manchester from Euston station." Before the woman could finish explaining, Harriet had floored the accelerator and thrown the car out onto the road.

Noticing the slightly alarmed look on Kezia's face, Leon leant forward and put his hand on her arm. "Where's DI Manson?"

"He's wrapped up with this case he's got going on; him, the DCI and the Superintendent called Max and Stuart into his office just before I left so it won't be long before the rest of us find out what it is. It sounds like a major case." Kezia winced as Harriet hurled the vehicle round a corner and the two constables were thrown sideways, only prevented from hurtling across the car thanks to their seatbelts.

"What time was the train?"

"14:27."

Twisting her wrist so she could see her watch clearly, the brunette growled angrily and focused her gaze on the road ahead. "We have less than ten minutes to get there and scale the whole station to try and find him."

Unable to resist aiming an angry glare at the slightly frightened looking detective, Harriet clutched the steering wheel tightly, her knuckles turning white with the ferocity of her grip. As they reached the station, Harriet narrowed her eyes at the stream of cars outside the station and, without missing a beat, flicked on the blues and two's. Pulling up outside the station, the woman slammed on the brakes before jumping out, the two constables hot on her heels.

Sprinting up to the Information desk, Harriet sent Kezia and Leon to start taking a look around before giving the other officers the same order. "Sergeant Barclay, SunHill; I need to know what platform the 14:27 train to Manchester Piccadilly leaves from." The woman clicked at something on the computer before informing the woman of the platform she needed. Harriet turned and glanced at the signs above her head, reaching for her radio at the same time. "All units from 82; the train that Andrew Greaves is booked on leaves from platform five in… four minutes."

Growling angrily, Harriet took off at a sprint across the station, dodging the crowds dispersing from the different trains. Reaching platform five, she crossed it quickly before ducking into the facilities located at the exit. Once she was sure he wasn't in the toilets, she ran round to check the platform opposite just as the train pulled in.

Harriet swore loudly as the train doors opened and a mass crowd congregated beside the doors; there was no way she was going to get through the crowd. Pushing past the first set of doors, Harriet stood back and narrowed her eyes to try and locate the suspect in that crowd. Realising he wasn't there, the Sergeant moved further down the platform.

"All units from 437; suspect has been located in the third carriage of the train." Harriet immediately took off at a sprint in the direction of the third set of doors. Pushing through the crowd, she ignored the cries of annoyance and pushed past the ticket inspector whose mouth dropped open as she flew past him, bashing the button for the doors to the carriage. As the doors flew open the woman moved through the carriage, peering carefully at the passengers on the train until she crashed into Leon who was coming in the opposite direction.

"He must be here, there's no way he can have escaped so quick." Leon muttered under his breath.

Harriet frowned and raked her eyes over the carriage again. Spotting the man they were looking for, she turned back to Leon. "Navy jacket, flat cap. Third row from the back, left hand side." Leon peered round the Sergeant and located their suspect.

"So what do we do?"

"Arrest him." Harriet led the way down the carriage towards where Andrew was sat. He avoided looking up from his book until the two officers were stood directly next to him. Harriet hesitated, expecting the man to lash out or try and escape but, instead, he simply glanced up slowly. "Andrew Greaves; I'm arresting you on suspicion of the attempted murder of Mark Twinning-Lee. You do not have to say anything but it may harm your defence if you do not say, when questioned, something which you may later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence."

Harriet unhooked her cuffs from her belt as Leon grabbed the man's arm to make sure he didn't try to escape. She cuffed him before sending him away with Leon, Harriet following close behind.

X-X

"Interview commencing at 15:46. Officers present are Sergeant Harriet Barclay and DC Kezia Walker." Harriet looked at the man sat across the table from her. "Mr Greaves, can you tell me where you were at 08:55 this morning?"

"At home." He muttered quietly.

"Can anyone can confirm that?"

"My wife…" The man glanced up blankly and sighed wearily.

"Okay..." Harriet leant back and surveyed the man in front of her; she didn't need a confession from him, she had enough evidence with the CCTV and his wife's statement to charge him. However, a part of her wanted to hear it from the man himself. "You see the thing is, Mr Greaves, we have CCTV footage that show's you, not at home, but at Boost nightclub."

"It's where I work," Andrew shrugged. "I can go there."

Kezia opened the folder in front of her and pulled out two sheets of paper. "For the benefit of the tape, I am now showing the suspect exhibit NF01 and NF02; the first photograph shows Mr Greaves and Mr Twinning-Lee having what seems to be an argument in the nightclub and the second photograph shows Mr Greaves hitting Mr Twinning-Lee over the head with what looks to be an ashtray."

Andrew rubbed his face wearily as Kezia pushed the photos towards him. "I…"

Harriet narrowed her eyes at the man and folded her arms across her chest. "What's your relationship with Leonie Bailey?"

"She's a cleaner at the club… I'm her boss."

"Oh I think it's more than that, Mr Greaves, don't you?" Harriet motioned for Kezia to pull Beverly Greaves' statement from the folder. "Your wife told us as much."

"Bev? My wife?" Andrew stared at them before shaking his head fiercely. "No, she wouldn't."

"She would and she did, Mr Greaves." Harriet pushed the statement towards him and his eyes scanned over it in disbelief. "Nothing like a woman scorned, eh?" As Kezia smirked at the woman's comment, there was a knock at the door and Harriet stood up, leaving Kezia to inform the tape of the developments. Frowning, she stepped outside and glanced up questioningly at Callum.

"What?"

"St Hugh's just called," The man glanced at the scrap of paper in his hand. "Mark Twinning-Lee is conscious but he's been kept in for observation."

"Alright, thanks." Squeezing her boyfriend's arm softly, the brunette re-entered the room and returned to her seat. "We've had an update on Mr Twinning-Lee's condition."

"What's happened?"

"Mr Twinning-Lee has regained consciousness." Andrew let out a loud breath of relief and Harriet leant forward, narrowing her eyes at him. "Andrew, did you hit Mark with the ashtray?"

Andrew pressed his lips together tightly and rubbed his face roughly, the seriousness of the situation overwhelming him. "Yes… But I never intended to hurt him as badly as I did. I just wanted him to leave me alone." Andrew's shoulders shook gently as his eyes filled with tears and he let out an anguished sob.

Harriet leant back and sighed as Kezia gathered up the evidence, replacing it in the folder. Standing up, the detective moved over to the tape recorder. "Interview terminated at 17:04."

Leaving the interview room, Harriet motioned with her head for Callum to return Andrew to his cell and turned to Kezia. "Hey listen," The woman placed her hand on the detectives arm. "I'm sorry for taking out my anger on you earlier, it's just…"

"Don't worry, Leon told me that Andrew Greaves was the victim on your first day." Kezia smiled softly and squeezed the woman's arm before heading away towards CID.

Turning her attention back to the custody desk, Harriet grinned as she spotted Callum leant against the desk absent mindedly, looking over a pile of papers. Checking there was no one around, Harriet crept up behind him, wrapping her arms around him and resting her head between his shoulder blades and sighing deeply.

Turning, Callum pulled the woman towards him and kissed her softly. "Hey, sweetheart, what's wrong?"

Harriet smiled and shook her head. "Right now, nothing. In about two minute's time, a million things."

"That's life, babe"

"I know… It just all looks a bit shit, don't it?" Callum stepped back and smirked.

"From where I'm standing, it doesn't look shit at all." Callum bit his lip suggestively and Harriet raised an eyebrow at him. "Nah, it looks gorgeous from where I'm standing."

 _ **Thank you for all your incredible support in 2016 & a Happy New year for 2017 to you all (a slightly late one, I know) **_


	18. Chapter 18

**_Thank you HMbookqueen & Serenbex for your lovely reviews. As you can clearly tell, HMbookqueen, this isn't the end... _**

"Callum!" Harriet pushed open the bedroom door and marched towards the figure in the bed. Rolling her eyes as she realised her boyfriend was still asleep, the brunette grabbed hold of the bottom of the duvet and pulled it off the bed, dropping it on the floor in a heap.

With a groan, the man sat up and turned to face his girlfriend, his brow furrowing in confusion. "What's wrong?" Harriet pulled the curtains open and gestured to the weather.

"The weathers lovely and it's not often we both have the day off so I thought it'd be nice if we went somewhere." Harriet flopped on the bed beside her boyfriend and rested her head against his shoulder.

"Like where?"

"Somewhere by the sea? I haven't been to the coast for ages."

Callum rubbed the back of his neck and nodded slowly. "Let me get washed and dressed and then we'll go."

"Well I wasn't planning on letting you go in your pyjamas." The woman replied sarcastically. Callum rolled his eyes at the brunette who simply pressed a kiss to his lips in response and rolled off the bed to avoid the arm he attempted to wrap around her.

X-X

"£7.00 for parking!" Callum grumbled as the two sergeants made their way out of the car park a couple of hours later. They'd eventually settled on Southend for their day out and, after getting caught in traffic fifteen miles before they'd arrived, Callum had complained endlessly.

"Oh stop moaning," Harriet replied. "What was the other alternative than a day out?" When Callum raised his eyebrows suggestively, Harriet rolled her eyes at his one track mind. Spotting an ice cream van further down the street, she grabbed hold of Callum's arm and pulled him towards it. "Come on, I'll treat you to a 99' if you're lucky."

Once they'd bought their ice creams from the van, they settled on a bench overlooking the beach. Harriet glanced up distractedly from eating her dessert and frowned at the absent look on Callum's face as he stared at something behind her. Turning in her seat, she frowned as she saw the fairground, wondering what Callum could find so interesting about it.

"What's wrong?"

Callum blinked, turning his attention back to his girlfriend with a start. "Nothing."

"Callum," Harriet fixed her gaze on her boyfriend fiercely. "I know there's something wrong, now what is it?"

"The fairground over there."

"What about it?"

"I used to come here as a kid during the summer. Dad used to take me on the Ferris wheel." Harriet frowned, her ice cream halfway to her lips. Out of all the things she'd expected Callum to say, she hadn't expected him to bring up his parents. With a pang of guilt, she realised they'd never talked about his mum and dad.

"You've never mentioned them before?" Harriet responded quietly.

Callum twisted the ice cream cone around in his hands. "No need to, their not in my life anymore." He replied bluntly.

"Why not?"

"Your dad was a bent cop who didn't play by the rules, mine wasn't much different." Callum turned abruptly and threw the cone into the bin.

Recoiling at the unexpected mention of her own father, Harriet scowled. "My dad was a violent alcoholic who used to hit me when he was in the mood to." Sighing deeply, the woman shook her head. "Besides, we're not talking about my dad."

Callum shook his head and grimaced, turning to watch the waves lap gently onto the sand. "My dad was Inspector Philip Stone, respected officer of the Met." Laughing sarcastically, he turned to face his girlfriend. "Even after he raped a probationer."

Harriet silently cursed herself for asking questions that had clearly got the man's back up. "He raped a probationer?"

"Well that's not what the file says." He replied coldly. "The official decision is that a drunk probationer ended up in bed with her Inspector and instead of taking the flack for it she decided to accuse him of rape."

"And you don't believe that's the truth?"

Callum shook his head and breathed out deeply through his nose. "Harriet, you know as well as I do that the further up the ranks you go, the more power you hold. My dad was an expert at pulling rank and he knew exactly how to get what he wanted out of anybody so I know for a fact he'll have got his mates to discredit that woman as best they could."

"So, what, you just turned your back on your family because you believed your dad was a rapist who'd got his mates to cover it up for him?"

"I didn't believe he was a rapist, I knew he was." Callum replied soberly. "I gave mum a choice, me or him. She chose him."

"How long ago did you last speak to them?"

"Eighteen years."

Harriet furrowed her brow at Callum's response. "I can't believe you… You just turned your back on your parents."

Callum's head snapped up and he glared at his girlfriend. "Didn't you do the exact same?"

"I walked out on my dad because he abused me and my mum had already left years before that." Harriet glared at Callum angrily, tears brimming in her eyes. Blinking them back, she took a deep breath. "I'm not saying you did the wrong thing, in fact you probably did the right thing considering the circumstances… I just don't understand how you can have been so sure."

"I just knew, alright, I just knew!"

Nodding slowly, Harriet sniffed and pushed herself to her feet. Realising she wasn't going to get anymore out of him and still stinging at Callum's constant digs at her own past, Harriet turned and stalked away in the direction of the car park.

"Harriet… Harriet," Hearing Callum sprinting up behind her, Harriet quickened her pace and ignored his shouts. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you."

Realising Callum wasn't going to give up, she stopped and turned to face him. The man reached out and touched her arm gently. "Well guess what, Callum, that's exactly what you did." Shaking her head, she pushed his hand away roughly.

"I'm sorry." Callum repeated, his face falling at the woman's actions. "I was just hurt that you thought I'd made the wrong decision on something so... So personal to me."

"Of course I don't think that, Callum and I never would." Shaking her head bitterly, she turned and started walking back in the direction of the car park. "Let's just go."

Callum opened his mouth to respond to her but, noticing her defeated posture, he decided against it and slowly began following his girlfriend's path back to the car, immediately cursing himself for being so insensitive.


	19. Chapter 19

_**Thank you to Serenbex and HMbookqueen for your lovely reviews.**_

 _ **Also, a big thank you to shannonweller for favoriting me and rachael. for following and favoriting FS.**_

 _ **Happy reading! :)**_

Harriet stormed into the station in a vile mood the following morning, clutching tightly onto her plastic coffee cup and avoiding eye contact with the other officers she passed. Spotting Nate heading in her direction, the brunette ducked through the changing room door quickly and slammed it shut. Leaning against her locker heavily, she attempted to ignore her pounding headache and the nauseous feeling in the bottom of her stomach. Regretting the bottle of wine she'd drank last night, she changed into her uniform and headed in the direction of the Sergeants office, her mood further plummeting at the staggering pile of paperwork that had appeared on her desk overnight.

"Morning." Harriet turned, an icy remark on the tip of her tongue, but relented at the sight of Smithy's smiling face. "Ouch, rough night?"

The brunette's face fell at the man's comment and she smacked him on the arm gently. "Oi!"

The man chuckled and dropped into his desk chair. "I'm joking, you know you're my favourite officer in this place."

"I'll tell Stevie that, shall I?" Harriet snorted with laughter at the glare Smithy sent in her direction, both Sergeants aware of the hard time Stevie would give her boyfriend over the comment.

"I'd rather you didn't." The man muttered as he passed the woman on his way out of the door. Smiling to herself, her mood having lifted slightly, she settled herself at her desk to tackle her paperwork.

Flicking through the various files on her desk, she growled as she came across some of Smithy's files that had somehow made it from his pile of paperwork and onto hers. Making a mental note to mention it to the man when she next saw him, she chewed her pen and studied the case notes slowly.

As the course of the morning wore on, Harriet found her mind drifting back to the previous night. They'd drove back from Southend in stony silence, Harriet too hurt to break the ice and Callum too wary. When they'd finally reached the brunette's flat, Harriet had left the car without a word, leaving Callum with no choice but to return to his own flat. Harriet knew Callum hadn't intended to hurt her and that she needed to speak to her boyfriend before the damage got worse but the brunette wasn't willing to swallow her pride just yet so she pushed her thoughts to the back of her mind and focused on her work.

"Mel, Mel!" Harriet glanced up at the sound of Nate's voice as he passed her office in a hurry and Harriet leaned round the doorframe just in time to see the female PC disappear into the toilets. Nate stopped beside the door and sighed as he caught sight of Harriet's concerned frown.

"What's going on?"

"DS Carter's just laid into us for arresting a suspect he had under surveillance for importing stolen cars." Harriet felt her blood boiling at the PC's words; Harriet and Max had clashed on more than one occasion during her time so far at SunHill and the Sergeant was well aware that Max saw uniform as been secondary to CID. "We had no idea he was under surveillance, Sarge, if we had we'd never have arrested him."

Harriet nodded slowly and smiled weakly at the man. "Go and check on Mel, make sure she's alright." As Nate disappeared down the corridor, Harriet turned on her heel and made her way upstairs to CID.

"Harriet, have yo-."The uniform Sergeant ignored Banksy as she pushed through the double doors to the office, making a beeline straight for where the Detective Sergeant she was looking for was sat.

"I'm telling you no-." Max turned as he felt a shadow fall over him and he smirked slightly, folding his arms over his chest and leaning back in his chair. "Let me guess, PC Ryder and PC Roberts have come telling tales?"

"From what I hear Max, you laid into them over a simple mistake."

Max laughed sarcastically. "Do you know how long we've had Peter Stables under surveillance for?" Before Harriet could respond, Max pulled out a bulging file and dropped it onto the desk with a thud. "Six weeks. Six weeks of paperwork, overtime, surveillance, evidence logging, you name it; all to nail one bloke."

"I'm sorry, Max but Nate and Mel had no-."

"Then when we're this close, literally hours away from finally being able to nick this bloke, uniform come along and blow the whole thing by arresting him on an outstanding warrant for an assault on a bloke in a pub."

"Nate and Mel had no idea tha-."

"You know what I think about your team?" Harriet was aware that the office had fallen into silence and were watching the situation with intrigue. "I think your team are lazy and incompetent; they don't think before they act, they don't give a stuff that there might be more important cases going on then the one their dealing with and if there's a bit of hard work to be done, their nowhere to be seen"

Harriet felt her blood boiling at the man's words, almost as if he'd insulted her personally. "My team," The woman fired back icily. "Work hard day in, day out, morning, noon and night. They put their lives on the line every time they clock on shift and their out there doing the leg work so that you," Harriet pointed a finger at the detective angrily. "Can get a result without having to do the dirty work yourself."

Max opened his mouth to interrupt but closed it again as Harriet continued. "My team is made up of some of the best officers I've ever had the honour of working with and, maybe, if you gave them the time of day they deserve once in a while, instead of using them as your lackey's, you'd realise that for yourself." Harriet's eyes flashed angrily. "Oh and you know whose fault it was for your operation being ruined? Yours, Max; if you'd have let me know you had Peter Stables under surveillance than Mel and Nate would never have arrested him." Turning on her heel, Harriet stomped out of CID and downstairs to the Sergeant's office.

Dropping into her desk chair, she closed her eyes and groaned as she realised she'd probably made the situation worse for Mel and Nate as well as inadvertently making herself station gossip for the next few days. She doubted Rachel and Neil would be happy about her's and Max's behaviour and she expected she'd be called into one or both of their offices over the next few days.

"I leave you for a few hours and you get through a mountain of paperwork, four cups of coffee and also manage to squeeze in an argument with DS Carter." Harriet glanced up as Smithy dropped into his desk chair, barely concealing a smirk at what he'd heard. "That's impressive, even for you."

"He laid into uniform" Harriet shrugged. "I couldn't sit back and do nothing, could I? Those PC's are like my babies and I know they are for you as well, so don't tell me you wouldn't have done the same."

Smithy conceded the brunette had a point and he, too, would have also defended uniform's honour had he been in the woman's position. "Max has every right to be annoyed, we did ruin his case after all."

"Max is a dick." Harriet snapped.

"True," Smithy agreed. "But you thought Callum was a dick as well a few months ago and now you and him are best buds."

"My relationship with Callum is completely different to my relationship with Max."

"How?" Harriet glanced up and caught Smithy's eye. A moment of silence passed before realisation dawned on the man's face. His mouth fell open and he gaped at the brunette. "You and Callum are a thing? An item? A couple?"

"Yes, Smithy." Harriet snapped, burying her head in her hands as she realised she'd inadvertently revealed the truth about her and Callum.

"How did I miss that?" The man muttered to himself. "I mean, we knew about you two sleeping together but we didn't realise it'd gone any further."

"That's because we didn't want you to know." Harriet winced at the slightly hurt look on her friend's face. "Well, not yet, anyway."

"I'll take it the others don't know?" Harriet shook her head. "Stupid question really; if Stevie had known then I'd have definitely known and so would half the station."

"Kind of why we didn't exactly shout it from the rooftops." As much as both Sergeant's loved the petite blonde, they were both well aware secrecy wasn't exactly the blonde's strong point.

"That explains all the secret looks and smiles in the morning briefing, then." Smithy joked. Harriet leant forward and smacked his arm gently. "No, seriously, I'm happy for you. You make a good couple."

"Why; because we're both sarcastic, reckless and stubborn?" Harriet smirked and quirked an eyebrow at Smithy who opened his mouth to protest to what the woman had said as DI Manson appeared in the doorway.

Harriet winced as she realised that he was probably here to have a go at her about arguing with Max and she sighed. "I need you both upstairs in ten minutes." Before either Sergeant could ask why, the Inspector had turned on his heel and disappeared back the way he'd come.

"I thought he was here about my argument with Max," Harriet frowned. "But if you're invited as well then it must not be."

"Mmmm, that's what I was thinking." Smithy chewed his lip thoughtfully. "Come on, let's go find out."


	20. Chapter 20

_**Thank you's to Serenbex, HMbookqueen, Guest and ItUsedToBeMadLove for your lovely reviews!**_

 _ **Also, thank you to ItUsedToBeMadLove and HannahV123 for following and favoriting FS!**_

Heading upstairs and pushing through the double doors to CID, Harriet shared a confused look with Smithy at the officers stood milling around outside the briefing room. Stevie spotted them hovering beside the water cooler and moved over to join them, chattering away about what the briefing could be about. The crowd parted to reveal Superintendent Heaton and DCI Meadows heading through the double doors, closely followed by DI Manson and Inspector Weston. The senior officers disappeared inside the briefing room before the officers milling outside were invited in.

Settling herself beside Stevie, Harriet turned her attention to the board at the front of the room as more officers piled in behind her. Her attention was temporarily captured by Callum, dressed in civvies after obviously being called in on his day off, stood beside Leon at the other side of the room. Their eyes met for a moment before the Superintendent took his place at the front of the room and called for quiet, forcing both Sergeants to turn their attention away from each other.

"Thank you for coming in at such short notice everyone. As I'm sure most of you are aware, myself and some of the other senior officers have been working on a very important case over the past few weeks." Harriet suddenly remembered the case Kezia had mentioned a few weeks ago that the detective had said DI Manson had been stressing over. "We've finally received full information on the case and we've planned a raid for tonight"

The Superintendent gestured to Jack. "A few weeks ago, we received a tip off that a group of underage girls were being trafficked across the country." The man informed the officers gruffly. "The journey started three days ago in Sunderland before travelling down to Leeds, then Manchester, Birmingham and finally finishing up here tonight where they'll be handed over."

Jack gestured towards Neil and Rachel who stepped forward in unison. "The lorry with the girls in is due to arrive at the Marsh industrial estate just after eleven." Neil pointed to the location on the map of Canley that was pinned to the whiteboard. "Now there's only one unused warehouse on the estate so that's the one we'll be stationed around with other officers covering potential getaway routes."

Harriet was aware of someone watching her across the room and turned, her eyes locking with Callum's. She took in his tanned skin and pale blue eyes and let out a deep sigh. They'd spent less than twenty four hours without talking and Harriet already longed for him to hold her tightly. Somehow, Harriet's problems seemed to go away, or at the very least seem manageable, when Callum was around.

"… And Sergeant Stone and DS Moss, I want you stationed with a second group at the back exit to the warehouse." Callum turned away to face the Inspector. "Sergeant Barclay and DS Carter, you'll be stationed on one of the getaway routes out of the estate, the one leading into the woods." Harriet sighed loudly as she realised both Inspectors were aware of their argument. Rolling her eyes, she ignored the laughter that trickled around the room from the other officers who saw the irony of the situation. "It's the least likely of the three getaway routes but we don't want to take any chances."

"Our three suspects are Ronnie White, Joe Rigby and Jack Dempsey." Neil pointed at the mug shots pinned to the board. "We don't know the identity of any of the girls in the lorry but we do know that there will be exactly sixty girls in the back."

"Now I'm sure I don't need to remind any of you about how important it is this operation is successful," The superintendent stood up. "But I just want to make sure you are all on your game and prepared for what will happen." As a murmur of agreement ran around the room, the Super nodded at Jack.

"You all need to be back here by eight this evening." The DCI nodded. "Right, see you then."

As the DCI headed out of the briefing room, followed by Neil and Rachel, Smithy smirked at Harriet. "How excited are you for your evening with DS Carter?"

Harriet glared at her friend. "We're clearly being punished and made to get along all at the same time."

Smithy snorted. "Fat chance of that happening."

"Harriet," The brunette turned and swallowed thickly as Callum headed in her direction. Reaching out, the man glanced round him warily and, noticing that CID had mostly emptied, he interlinked their fingers carefully. "Look, can we talk? I didn't mean to upset you, you know that?"

Callum cupped his girlfriend's face gently and Harriet let out a soft sigh at the touch, causing Callum to stroke her cheeks tenderly with his thumb. "Callum, I-."

"Sarge?" Both officers leapt apart guiltily as Beth appeared in the doorway. The young PC narrowed her eyes before shaking her head and focusing her attention back on the woman. "Sam Atkins is kicking up a fuss in custody so DS Turner's decided to bail him, can you come and sign him out?"

Harriet nodded and watched the PC head back towards custody. Smiling weakly at Callum, she slipped past him and followed the younger woman's route downstairs. Scribbling her signature on the bottom of the required paperwork, Harriet left Beth to escort the suspect out and headed off in search of Callum. She was stopped numerous times by various officers and by the time she spotted Callum sat in the canteen with Leon and Will, Rachel sent her to cover custody for the remainder of her shift.

X-X

"So, you all know your roles for this evening," Harriet slipped into the back of the briefing room and took her place beside Smithy. "Right, let's go over the plan one last time."

Harriet tuned out of what the DCI was saying and glanced over to where she knew Callum was stood, now in his uniform. She'd still not had chance to sort things out with him yet but she hoped they would after the raid was over.

"Right, let's do it, then." Feeling Smithy poke her in the ribs and gesture towards the door, Harriet turned and followed the stream of officers out into the office. Stifling a yawn, she pushed through the doors and jogged down the stairs.

"I hope you're not too tired for your evening in a back alley with Max." Smithy teased as they grabbed their stab vests and radios from the Sergeant's office.

The brunette snorted at the hidden meaning behind the man's words. "You make it sound sordid!"

The man chuckled and led the way back out into the corridor. "Have fun." Turning, she bumped into Callum and glanced up, her breath hitching in her throat at the sight of her boyfriend stood in front of her.

"We need to sort this out."

"I know we do, it's just with the raid and everything I haven't had time." Harriet sighed. She was well aware that Callum hadn't intended to hurt her and seeing his remorse only confirmed this belief.

"We'll talk after, then?"

"Sure."

"As long as you make it home in one piece." Harriet rolled her eyes.

"I'm tucked out of the way in a back alley with Max fucking Carter." Harriet folded her arms and screwed her nose up in disgust. "I should be more worried about you at the centre of the action."

Callum chuckled and tugged gently at a strand of hair that had fallen from his girlfriend's ponytail. "Exactly, I've heard all about your set to with Max this morning." Harriet grumbled at the memory and Callum smirked before pressing a kiss to the top of his girlfriend's head. "Besides, I'm super cop aren't I? Don't worry about me, I'll be fine."

Watching the man head away to join Stevie at the custody desk, Harriet turned as Max appeared at the bottom of the stairs from CID. Taking a deep breath, she moved towards him slowly. "Come on," He snapped. "You might be used to being lackadaisical about things but I'm not."

"Yes, Max." Rolling her eyes, Harriet pulled the car keys from her pocket and followed the detective out into the yard, reluctantly resigning herself to the fact it was going to be a very long night.


	21. Chapter 21

_**As always, big thank you's to Serenbex and HMbookqueen :)**_

Harriet parked the car just after the entrance to the alley where she knew they'd be hidden from the street lights. She glanced around and sighed; they'd only been out of the station for twenty minutes and the woman had already been tempted to throw Max out of the car at least three times. If he wasn't snapping at her or making snide comments, he was sitting in the passenger seat making unimpressed noises.

"Sierra Oscar from Sierra Oscar 2-1, in position." The radio operator confirmed he'd heard and, in quick succession, the other units confirmed they were in position.

Almost half an hour passed before the silence between the two Sergeants was broken. "What's the deal with you and Stone, then?"

Harriet turned to face Max sharply. "What you talking about?"

"There's definitely something going on between you two."

Harriet glared at the detective, her mind racing with how Max could have found out about her relationship with Callum. Smithy finding out was one thing but Max knowing was something else entirely. "There isn't."

"So he kisses all of the females in uniform, does he?" The triumphant smirk on Max's face made the brunette growl and she turned in her seat to focus on the road ahead.

"It's none of your business."

"Surely it compromises you both to have a relationship with another officer?"

Harriet's mouth dropped open angrily. "Neither of us are compromised."

"I mean, surely it means that, if anything happened, Callum's instinct would be, as your boyfriend, to protect you and not his relief."

"This is ridiculous!" Harriet snapped. "Callum's instinct would be to protect the team around him, whether I'm there or not."

"If you say so."

"What is your problem?" Harriet whirled round to face the detective angrily and leaned towards him. "Is it because im happy with Callum and you've got no one? Is that it? Are you jealous?"

Max's eyes flashed angrily and he leaned towards the woman, their faces only inches apart. To the brunette's surprise, his eyes flickered towards her lips before moving back up to her eyes. "I'm not jealous."

"Why the sudden interest in my love life, then?" Harriet moved back and shuffled in her seat, Max's actions making her feel uncomfortable.

"Do you not think the relief are gonna have something to say about you and Callum? Or Rachel?" Harriet chewed her lip at Max's words. "You know what the Met's view of relationships between colleagues is." Harriet wished she could say that that thought hadn't crossed her own mind but she knew deep down that everyone would have something to say about her relationship with Callum.

"I don't give a shit what anyone else thinks." Harriet glared at the smug looking detective and folded her arms across her chest. "It's my life and I'll be damned if I let some know-it-all tell me what to do or who to see."

"Very romantic, you two put Romeo & Juliet to shame."

"Oh fuck off, Max."

Shuffling in her seat, the woman ignored the detective beside her and stared out of the car window, drumming her fingers on the steering wheel. Suddenly there was a thud as something landed on the bonnet of the car heavily and both officers shared a confused look.

"Sierra Oscar 2-1 from DI Nixon, have you got eyeball on an IC1 male in a black leather jacket and black jeans, last seen running towards the woodland."

Harriet threw open the car door and sprinted round to the bonnet as the figure moved. Without warning, he turned and sprinted into the woodland, the two officers closely behind him.

"Sierra Oscar from Sierra Oscar 2-1, currently in pursuit of an IC1 male wearing black jeans and a black leather jacket, urgent back up required."

The brunette, noticing Max had disappeared from sight, frowned and continued following the suspect through the trees. Ducking under a particularly low branch, the Sergeant gasped as her foot hit a rock and she stumbled, landing on the floor in a heap.

Pushing herself onto her elbows, she climbed to her knees as a heavy weight landed on top of her. Gasping for breath as the weight trapped her to the ground, she attempted to press the panic button on her radio desperately.

"Give me the radio!" Harriet groaned as she realised that the suspect was the one pinning her to the ground. When Harriet didn't move, he pressed his weight down on the back of her neck and she gasped for air.

Shuffling slightly underneath his body weight, she slowly slid the device from her stab vest and held it up for the man to grab. "Look, just… Let me stand-up."

"What, so you can arrest me?"

"Well they won't have no choice but to arrest you if you squash me to death!" The brunette snapped.

Harriet hesitated, waiting to see whether the man would do as she asked and, after a few seconds, he moved off the brunette slowly. Turning, the brunette opened her mouth to speak to the man looming above her but, before she could, the man slammed his fist into the side of her cheek before standing up and sprinting away further into the trees.

Harriet gasped, feeling the metallic taste of blood trickling over her tongue and she scrambled to her feet, attempting to follow the suspect's route through the woodland. Spotting a shed just ahead of her that she thought he'd headed towards, she clutched her cheek gently and hobbled over the tree roots.

Just as she reached the shed, a gun shot went off in the distance and she jumped, spinning round wildly to see where the sound had come from. Realising the sound was too far away for the gun to be anywhere near her, she turned to make her way back through the woodland towards where she knew everyone else was stationed and crashed straight into someone stood behind her. Grabbing her asp from her belt, she waved it out wildly in front of her.

"What the- What you playing at?" Max grabbed the brunette's asp from her hand and shone his torch over her face causing the brunette to wince at the bright light. "What happened to your cheek?"

"Oh, it's you." Harriet folded her asp and replaced it in her belt. "I got lamped by the suspect."

"Joe Rigby?"

"Whichever one we chased." Harriet sighed deeply. "I've lost him now anyway so fat lot of good it did."

"Uniform picked him up about five minutes ago on the outskirts of the wood." Max frowned. "Didn't you hear it on your radio?"

"He took it from me. I tripped over a tree root and landed on the floor and then he pinned me to the ground." Harriet slowly followed the detective back the way she'd come.

"So you haven't heard what's happened?"

Harriet stopped and turned to face the man in puzzlement. "What you talking about?"

"At the warehouse? You've no idea what's gone on?"

Harriet suddenly felt her stomach drop and she grabbed the man's arm tightly. "Max, what's happened?" The detective sighed uncomfortably and Harriet tightened her grip on the man's arm. "Max!"

"It's Callum… He's been stabbed"

* * *

 ** _So, this is the penultimate chapter in Falling Slowly, therefore the next chapter will be the final one!_**


	22. Chapter 22

_**Thank you's to Serenbex and Guest for your, as always, lovely reviews!**_

Harriet burst through the double doors of the hospital and ran towards the reception desk as fast as her legs would carry her. She slammed onto the desk and the receptionist glanced up in shock at the disturbance.

"Can I he-."

"Sergeant Callum Stone," Harriet panted. "He was brought in with a stab wound. I need to know what ward he's on."

"If you aren't a relative of the patient then I'm afraid we're not permitted to disclose information to you."

Harriet gripped the desk tightly, her temper flaring at the woman's words. "I'm his girlfriend!" She snapped. "If anyone should know where he is then it's got to be me."

"I'm sorry, officer, I cannot-."

"Listen," Harriet leaned over the desk angrily. "Just tell me-."

"Sergeant Barclay!" Harriet winced at the sound of Rachel's voice and she turned, slowly, to face the Inspector. "What's going on?"

"This woman," Harriet pointed at the receptionist angrily. "Won't tell me where Callum is."

"Why do you need to know where Callum is?"

Harriet stared at the woman incredulously. "He's my boyfriend!" As soon as the words had come out of her mouth, Harriet remembered that Rachel had no idea about Callum and her but before she could say anything else, the Inspector had grabbed her by the arm and was propelling her towards the stairs.

"He got stabbed in the chest." The Inspector explained quietly. "He and Stevie were trying to detain a suspect and he pulled a knife which he somehow managed to get under his stab vest." Harriet suddenly felt dizziness overwhelm her and she clutched the handrail tightly.

"Is he…"

"I don't know." The Inspector answered honestly. "Stevie went with him in the ambulance, she'll be able to tell you more." Opening the door to the ward, Rachel led the way down the corridor.

"I don't… I…" Harriet tried desperately to find something to say but the shock of the situation had made her speechless. Rachel turned and frowned at the woman.

"Where's your radio?"

Harriet blinked at the Inspector as she tried to focus her attention on her face. "The suspect I chased made me hand it over."

"Are you alright?" Rachel frowned and peered closely at the brunette.

"Yeah… Yeah, I'm fine." Seeing Stevie sat on the plastic chairs outside a room slightly further down the corridor, she gestured to the Inspector. "Can I…" The older woman paused before stepping aside and letting the woman pass her.

Harriet jogged down the corridor and, noticing the blinds in the window of the room were down, she dropped into the chair beside Stevie who smiled at her friend weakly. "Is he okay? What happened?"

"We were trying to detain Ronnie White." The blonde ran a hand through her hair shakily. "After the van turned up, all hell broke loose; the suspects and the girls were running everywhere. Callum and me chased Ronnie White out of the warehouse and further down the estate. I grabbed him but he pulled a knife so Callum decided to tackle him and he managed to get the blade of the knife under his stab vest."

Harriet felt her stomach turn at her friend's words and she clutched the seat tightly. "How bad is it?"

"I don't know." The woman swallowed thickly. "All I know is that he was still alive when they brought him up from A&E but there was blood... lots of blood."

Harriet leant back against the wall and attempted to fight back the tears that were threatening to fall from her eyes. She regretted not giving Callum the time to make it up to her after their argument and she felt her heart contract at the thought of losing the man that she loved so much.

Jumping to her feet, Harriet turned to face the doctor as he appeared in the doorway to the room. "How is he?" The brunette asked quietly.

"Well, luckily, the wound wasn't too deep which means that, while he has lost a significant amount of blood, no major arteries seem to have been disturbed so, hopefully, he'll make a full recovery." Harriet felt like she was about to collapse at the man's words and she couldn't stop herself from bursting into tears. "You can go in and see him, if you'd like. He's asleep, mind."

Before the doctor could finish, Harriet had disappeared through the door, leaving Stevie staring after her in puzzlement.

X-X

Stevie frowned as her friend slammed the door shut behind her and she sat down on the hard plastic chairs. She understood that Harriet and Callum worked closely together and were even friends these days but Stevie still found her friends behaviour odd. She glanced up as Smithy sat down beside her and smiled weakly.

"How is he?" He asked gravely.

"He's alright." His girlfriend replied. "They've stemmed the bleeding and the blade didn't touch any major arteries so he'll be alright. They think he'll make a full recovery."

Smithy breathed out deeply and wrapped an arm around his girlfriend who snuggled into his side, relishing the familiarity of Smithy's body after such a dramatic few hours. "Is Harriet in with him?"

Stevie frowned and turned her head so she was looking up at the Sergeant. "Why'd you ask that?"

"No reason." Smithy shrugged nonchalantly and avoided the woman's eyes.

Stevie sat up and narrowed her eyes at the man. "Smithy, is there something I should know?" Smithy shot the blonde a sideways glance and he sighed deeply.

"Look, you didn't hear this from me, okay?"

"Smithy, just spit it out!"

"Harriet and Callum have been seeing each other."

Stevie paused, processing the man's words slowly. "Seeing each other? What, like a couple?"

"Well how else can you see someone?"

Stevie sat in silence for a few moments before scowling at the man. "How did you know before I did?"

Smithy, despite the situation that had just gone on, couldn't help himself from chuckling at his girlfriend's response. "I guessed."

Stevie yawned and snuggled into the man's side. "Well if that's the case I need to sharpen up my detective skills. Harriet and Callum as a couple? I certainly didn't see that one coming."

X-X

Harriet crept round the end of her boyfriend's bed slowly, watching him sleep. The sight of all the tubes and monitors that he was connected to made Harriet feel sick but the reassuring sight of his chest rising and falling calmed her nausea. Reaching the side of the bed, she sat down in the chair quietly and she took Callum's hand in hers.

"You alright there?" Harriet jumped at the sound of Callum's hoarse voice and the man chuckled in amusement.

"Callum…" Harriet leant forward and smiled weakly. "How you feeling?"

"Never better." He replied sarcastically. Harriet rolled her eyes and the man smiled at her. "You?"

"Like I've aged about 40 years." This time it was Callum's turn to roll his eyes. "Thought you were supposed to be supercop?"

Instead of responding, Callum reached out and stroked the brunette's cheek gently with his thumb. Without warning, Harriet burst into tears and grabbed the man's hand tightly, squeezing it hard.

"Hey, shh." Callum wiped the tears away from the woman's cheek with his other hand and he sighed. "Stop that."

"I thought you were going to die." Harriet ignored the man's interjection. "Hearing that you'd been stabbed… I felt sick, I… I… I couldn't bear the thought of a future without you."

"Well that's not going to happen, is it?"

"All I could think about was what we'd fallen out about, how pathetic it was." Callum sighed deeply and Harriet clutched his hand tighter. "Callum… I want a life with you, okay? I want you and me to be together for the rest of our lives, you're the only man I've ever truly loved. Please tell me you want that too?"

"I want that more than anything." Callum whispered. "I want marriage, kids, dogs, the whole lot."

Harriet wiped the tears away from her cheeks roughly. "Really?"

"Yeah…" The man leant forward and pressed a kiss to her lips. "More than anything, though… I want you."

* * *

 ** _So that's it! The end of Calliet's journey!_**

 ** _Thank you for your incredible support over the last TWO YEARS (Sorry about that...), it meant the world. I hope you've all enjoyed reading this as much as I have writing it._**

 ** _Fingers crossed, Calliet will be back in the future for PT 2 of their journey, so keep an eye out for a potential sequel at some point._**


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